The Tin Man Theory
by SRAM
Summary: This is a story involving Leonard and Howard that ends up involving Penny and Bernadette. There is violence and death in the story, so be forewarned. Howard and Leonards actions end up changing their lives forever.
1. Chapter 1

**THIS STORY IS INSPIRED BY THE DALE BROWN BOOK "TIN MAN" HOWEVER EXCEPT FOR THE CONCEPT THE STORY IS MINE. I AM BORROWING THE CHARACTERS FROM THE BIG BANG THEORY AS MY PLAYERS, BECAUSE FOR THE STORY TO BE A LITTLE BIT BELIEVABLE I NEED THEIR GENIUS. SO THE CONCEPT IS OWNED BY DALE BROWN AND THE CHARACTERS ARE OWNED BY THE CREATORS OF THE BIG BANG THEORY. THIS STORY IS COMPLETELY WRITTEN IN DRAFT, I WANTED TO HAVE THE ENDING DRAFTED BEFORE I STARTED A NEVER-ENDING STORY LIKE THE 'THE COMPLETE PACKAGE' SO IT HAS BEEN IN WORK FOR OVER SIX MONTHS. I HOPE YOU LIKE IT. IT BEGINS IN SEASON SIX AND I AM TYING THE STORY INTO THE SHOW AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, HOWEVER AFTER THE EVENTS UNFOLD THE STORY WILL TAKE A COURSE OF ITS OWN. ALSO, RIGHT NOW I PLAN ON A CHAPTER A WEEK, BECAUSE I NEED TO FINISH MY OTHER STORY. SPECIAL THANKS TO TENSOR WHO DID A LITTLE BETA WORK WITH ME.**

**Chapter 1 - The Theory**

Penny had been feeling nervous all day, she had been trying to get her head around what she wants and now while she eats with Leonard, she can barely swallow her food, her hunger completely gone, she is so confused. Her mind is racing, she feels like she is running out of time to try and put her thoughts together, but even inside her head she can't come up with a solution to her problem. Finally, it was Leonard's words that bring her out of her trance, "Penny is everything okay?"

"Leonard, there is something I need to tell you. I'm just not sure how to say it."

"Just say it." He looks directly into her eyes, waiting for her to respond.

Penny knows all thinking comes from the brain, Sheldon told her numerous times when she brought up heartfelt feelings, but now it feels like it is her heart that is screaming to her 'NO!'. When she looks into Leonard's eyes, the only thing she can think of is that she wants to kiss him and there is no way she can hurt him. She truly doesn't want to hurt him, she has done that before, no she doesn't want to do that again, she wants to hug him and kiss him, not break up with him. But he is waiting for her to say something, she has to think of something. "Leonard, I've been thinking maybe we should move our relationship up a notch, we haven't had sex…..since that night, so I think maybe we should start again." A little nervous smile forms on her lips when she sees the large smile on his face, she loves his smiles.

Two hours later, as Penny lays in bed, in Leonard's arms, it surprised her how much she missed having sex with him, and especially the after sex cuddling. He is spooning her now, while she is wrapped in his arms, it feels so good, she is warm, secure and has a comfortable feeling that only Leonard seems to be able to give her. As she lays there, she also realizes if she had broken up with him two hours ago, she would right now be cold, lonely and crying with heartbreak, it makes her shiver when she thinks about it.

"Penny are you okay, you shivered?"

"No I'm okay, just a felt a little cold for a moment." Leonard pulls her a little closer against him, the closeness of him making her feel even better, if that was possible. She suddenly knows she did the right thing, she didn't want to give this up, being with him was still special to her and she didn't need to rush into doing anything like she had at the Bowling alley a couple of years before. She still is confused about their relationship but she thinks they have time, she didn't have to hurry, hurrying only ends up in pain, she knows that from before. It is probably just a rough patch they are going through, she heard of many couples having rough patches in their relationships, she thinks 'Maybe that is all it is, a rough patch'. She also knows if she broke up again, they were through, they could never go back and be friends and she doesn't want that, so she decides, she will give them time, all the time they need, she will see this through until she is sure.

-TIN MAN-

Leonard sat in his lab at Cal Tech, looking through the raw data results, he had been working with Dr Hogan for a week now on Hogan's project, it was really an experiment, an experiment involving Leonard's lasers. Dr Hogan, a material science expert, had gotten an US Army grant to try and improve on soldiers body armor, make it stronger and lighter, it was what then needed, right now. The current Kevlar vest, with the ceramic plates they used, was heavy and limited in its protection, the Army wanted something better. Hogan had lost his youngest son in Iraq, due to these deficiencies in body armor, a enemy rifle bullet penetrating a part where the ceramic plates didn't cover, and only the ceramic plates stopped rifle bullets.

The terrible tragedy Hogan experienced, made him become somewhat obsessed on fixing this problem. Hogan thought he had an idea, his idea, if validated, would make the Kevlar lighter, stronger and eliminate the heavy plates, that way when bullets hit the Kevlar alone they wouldn't penetrate, even with no plates. Hogan's plan to do that, centered on a hypothesis, he came up with, that if he could figure a way to align the molecules in the Kevlar, so they lined up perfectly, it would make the material stronger. Hogan knew to align the molecules he needed high energy, and Leonard's lasers could be used to supply that energy, so he came to Leonard for his assistance.

Leonard was now sitting at a computer in the lab, reviewing their last test results, while Dr Hogan looked at the material samples they just tested. Hogan was probably the nicest man at Cal Tech, everyone loved him, and Leonard thought of Dr Hogan, like a father figure, he respected the man and thought very highly of him. Hogan had been one of the first people to make friends with him when he got to Cal Tech, and he helped Leonard adjust to his new life in California. Leonard remembered eating dinner at Hogan's homes, many times his first year there and he had met and knew his son that died. Leonard felt a strong bond to Hogan and his family, so when he asked for Leonard's help, there was no hesitation by Leonard to help him in any way he could. However, since Leonard's work was not funded for supporting Hogan, Leonard had to work with him only when his work for the day was done, resulting in Leonard working long hours, day after day. Leonard didn't mind though, he would do anything for Hogan and that was why he was still in the lab going over data for their experiment, at 8 PM that evening.

"Dr Hogan, I have completed the preliminary data crunching on the results from the test and…"

"I know Leonard, just looking at the material, I can tell the test was a complete failure. Most of the target area is vaporized."

"I'm sorry sir." Leonard felt each test failure as a personal failure, he felt he disappointed the gentle man.

"Leonard, don't be. I am sorry, I know you are working overtime with me to do this and I am in you debt for it."

"No sir, please, I am honored to be working on this with you."

Hogan nodded and smiled, Leonard felt like one of his children to him. "Well why don't we call it a night Leonard. You have a girlfriend, you need to see her some."

"It is okay, sir, she understands."

Hogan chuckled, now he knew Leonard was not being honest. "Go home Leonard."

Leonard nodded in defeat. "Yes sir."

Leonard went to his office grabbed his messenger bag and started to put his phone in it, when he smiled and started to text Penny. He was tired and just feeling happy that Penny was his girlfriend again.

**LAST NIGHT WAS AMAZING. YOU'RE AMAZING. I'M SO LUCKY TO HAVE YOU IN MY LIFE.**

Less than an hour later Leonard was dragging his self up the stairs to his apartment, when he met with Bernadette and Amy coming down the other way. "Hi, another girls night?"

Bernadette and Amy looked at each other, then back at him. "Yeah, that's what we did." Bernadette answered for them both, as both of them hurried down the stairs, not even saying goodbye.

Leonard stood there for a minute and said to himself, "That's odd?", then he shook his head and headed up the remaining stairs to his apartment. He thought of stopping to see Penny, but it was really late and his mind too tired to settle riddles that night. If it was really important she would contact him, so he just went into the apartment and straight to his room to sleep.

-TIN MAN-

Leonard and Dr Hogan's work continued on for a couple more weeks, with no positive results, their difficulty, trying to deposit the exact amount of laser energy needed to prove Hogan's theory. Leonard's biggest problem was he had to calibrate his lasers to deposit the right amount of energy, without damaging the regular Kevlar. Of course, the right amount of energy, was something they hadn't been able to determined yet, so all these weeks, they were still destroying the normal Kevlar armor pretty regularly. It seemed each day they would calculate another energy value, based on last days failure, set up the lasers to test, then analyze the new failure, so they could start over again the next day. Both Leonard and Dr Hogan, were worn out, from the long hours, and what was making things worse was Dr Hogan was a man overweight, in his 60's. It was therefore, no real surprise that after another long night and after another failure, Hogan got upset.

"Damm it." Hogan hit the desk top with his fists.

Leonard turned from his computer screen surprised, "Sir what's wrong."

"Sorry Leonard, but my theory works on paper, why can't we get it to work in the lab. It should work."

Leonard looked at his mentor, the last week had really been stressful for him and Leonard actually thought the man aged. Leonard was tired too, all the days of working anywhere between 12-14 hours per day, had been getting to him too. "Sir, it will probably just take time, maybe we should take some time off and just go over the data again. We might have missed something."

"Always the voice of reason, Dr Hofstadter." Hogan chuckled, then he turned to Leonard a strained expression on his face. "Leonard, something is wrong." Hogan was holding his left arm as he slowly went to knees on the floor.

"Dr Hogan!" Leonard ran to the man, he was terrified.

Hogan was lucky that Leonard knew what to do, because of working with lasers he was constantly going through emergency training, so Hogan survived the attack and made it to the hospital on time. However, after extensive medical tests, the doctors determined he needed emergency bypass surgery and his recovery was expected to take several months. That meant the project was temporarily on hold, while Hogan went through surgery and then recovery in the hospital.

A couple days after Hogan finally went home to recover, Leonard reviewed where they were in the experiment and what he should do. Leonard thought he could continue the work, but now he had to work by himself, for a while before Dr Hogan could come back. Leonard really wanted to continue Hogan's work because he really liked the man and he was now convinced Hogan was on to something. So the day after Leonard visited Hogan to talk to him, at home, he decided to continue where they left off. Leonard's decision was now making him put in almost 12-16 hours a day at Cal Tech.

-TIN MAN-

A week after Leonard started to work on Hogan's theory again, the university's patrons ball was held, Leonard's small group of friends were in attendance, the guys, except Howard who was still in space, and their girls supporting them. Penny was there with Leonard, she hadn't seen too much of him the few weeks and was really happy to be out with him, even though, except for being with Leonard, the rest of the night would probably be boring. They were still working on their relationship, Penny especially was still trying to work through her feelings about Leonard and him actually working so much had given her time to think. She had seen Sheldon's assistant flirt with Leonard and now she realized how much she didn't want him to be with someone else, remembering how horrible she felt when he was with Raj's sister. She was jealous and she knew Leonard meant more to her than she had been ready to admit before. As Penny looked at him, she knew they had been getting closer and more comfortable with each other, which she actually liked, she really didn't want to be with anyone else, but him.

Tonight Penny looked stunning, wearing a black low cut evening dress, and Leonard found every man wanted to talk to them, which was good and bad at the same time. It was during one of those awkward periods that Colonel Turner walked up to Leonard, he greeted Penny, but didn't scan her body or look at her cleavage, like the other men, he wanted to talk to Leonard. Colonel Turner came from the Pentagon and was in charge of all university research grants in the area, which made him in charge of Hogan's program. Since, Turner was a professional soldier, he had to assigned to someplace, so he was assigned to a local National Guard unit as a senior advisor. But tonight he was in his role as program manager and he wanted Leonard to tell him how far Leonard and Hogan had progressed in their project.

"Dr Hofstadter, how is Dr Hogan doing?" The Colonel was very formal.

"I saw him yesterday, he is doing better, but his recovery is going to take a little longer, because the doctors want him to loose some weight before he resumes work. By the way…..Colonel Turner, this is lovely lady is my girlfriend Penny…Penny, this is Colonel Turner, our Army boss and keeper of the money." Leonard gave a little chuckle.

Penny put on her best smile, this man was obviously important to Leonard's work, so she wanted to impress him for Leonard. "A pleasure to meet you, Colonel Turner."

Turner gave Penny a quick glance, "A pleasure to meet you too, miss." Then Turner moved back closer to Leonard.

Penny was very experienced with people being a waitress and she could tell a lot about what people were thinking by just their looks and mannerisms. Turner was obvious, he had just dismissed her, he didn't want her around, Penny didn't know if she should be mad or just leave. She settled on leave, she didn't want to cause a problem for Leonard. "Sweetie, I'm going to find the girls and let you guys talk shop."

Leonard looked distraught. "You sure?"

Penny gave him a big smile. "Yes Sweetie, but I'm not going to let the nice Army man have you all night, so remember I'm still here."

Leonard nodded and smiled, "Thank you and I promise not too long."

Penny spent the next half hour with Bernadette and Amy, and watched as Leonard stood in the corner talking the man in the uniform, with all the medals. She couldn't help but gaze at Leonard, he was now in Dr Hofstadter mode, in the university he was an alpha male, people sought him out, respected him and valued his opinion, he became confident and outspoken, and Penny was currently in awe of him as she watched. There were many good looking men in the room and some of them had tried to get her attention, but she was locked on Leonard, and the thoughts of how much she cared for him. Her mind drifted to when she saw him talking with Alex, that day in the cafeteria and suddenly she was jealous of the Army man who had all his attention. Her feelings for him had been getting steadily stronger over the last few weeks, so she had enough, the Army man had kept Leonard long enough, and she went to steal him from the soldier to make him dance with her.

-TIN MAN-

It was a week later, after the university party, and after destroying another test sample, Leonard made the breakthrough. Leonard had an epiphany, the laser beam was producing too much energy concentrated onto too small an area, the beam was too collated, after all that is how lasers worked, but it was not what they wanted. Leonard decided to widen the beam, deposit the same energy over a larger area, to try and orient a larger mass of molecules into the specific alignment Dr Hogan was seeking. This was the only way Leonard could think of reducing the energy deposited on the material to a level that would not vaporize it.

It was late Wednesday night, Leonard was ready to try the new laser settings that expanded the 3.0 millimeter beam to 5.0 full centimeters. First he turned on the magnetic field that the material was suspended in, the field would be used to align the molecules after they were energized by the laser, so that when the laser energy was dissipated they would be aligned into a perfect matrix. Then he was ready, Leonard set the discharge timer, put on his goggles, took a deep breath and hit the discharge sequencing start switch. It was over in a few seconds, Leonard quickly shut down the magnetic field and walked over to the target area, the experimental sample was not damaged. Leonard repeated the experimental run, with another sample, he had to make sure it wasn't just a chance success. The second test had the same results, he hadn't destroyed the material, but did he confirm Dr Hogan's theory, had they discovered Super Kevlar?

Leonard took the new material to the material lab the next evening to test its properties. He found the material properties were amazing, the Super Kevlar was semi-flexible, almost as much as normal Kevlar, but much stronger. When Leonard did a high velocity object penetration test, the alignment of the molecules made it stronger, almost making the material harden and prevented penetration like ceramic plates. Leonard completed all the correlation of the test results on his computer and stared at the screen for a minute.

"Damm!" Leonard rotated in his chair, a huge smile on his face. "It works!"

Leonard had recorded everything and happily started to put everything together, he now had the settings, the time and the power, he was ready for phase two. It took another week to put together the jig and program the computer, but then on a Friday afternoon, his laser fired like a rapid fire machine gun, moving and firing, turning a small sheet of Kevlar into Super Kevlar, in just three hours. Hogan's theory and his lasers had done it, Super Kevlar was no longer a theory, Leonard could produce it.

-TIN MAN-

Penny didn't know what became of Leonard, the whole weekend he acted like he was drugged, everything made him smile and everything made him laugh. Friday night they played games with Sheldon and Amy, which turned out to be great fun, except for all the pie Penny had to get out of her hair and nose. Penny however was never one to question a good thing, so on Saturday, when they all went out to celebrate Howard's return from space, she just enjoyed the dinner, then club and even the dancing Leonard treated her to, he even insisted on doing. Penny, Bernadette, Howard and Leonard, outlasted their friends and partied to the early morning hours on Sunday, not getting to sleep until almost dawn. Not really getting too drunk the night before, Leonard took her Sunday afternoon to the street fair, a walk on the beach and then a nice dinner that occupied her the whole day. Penny was actually overwhelmed, it was the best weekend she had ever spent with anyone, in a long time, and with so much to do it was over to her in almost a heartbeat. Which was very symbolic because it was late Sunday night and Penny was laying on Leonard's chest listening to his heartbeat, happy as she could be, starting to think what the future would be with him.

"Thank you sweetie." Penny cuddled a little closer in to him.

"Your welcome, but for the record, why are you thanking me?"

"For the wonderful weekend, silly. It was so nice just having a weekend of fun and it was all the stuff I liked."

"I had fun too."

"Really you enjoyed all that stuff? All of it?"

"Yeah, I did, because I was with you."

Penny was at a loss for words, his 'because I was with you.' really went to her heart. It really got to her and she felt a tear in her eye. She just wanted to say something nice to him too, he was just wonderful. "I think that why it was so much fun for me too, because you were there." Penny then pulled herself up so she could kiss him, before she laid down back on his chest.

Penny laid there thinking, things were changing between them and Penny could feel it, it scared her and made her happy at the same time. Penny's confusion about their relationship, weeks ago, which led to her contemplating if they should keep together or breakup, had been on her mind since he had asked her to marry him over a month before. She still wasn't ready for marriage, she didn't know why, so him asking her that night made her wonder if they were really in sync with each other, or just two people who were good friends trying to force a relationship. But now it seemed things just got better, they seemed more in tune with each other and more comfortable, she still couldn't tell him she loved him, but she thought maybe in a few months she could even do that. She also started to wonder how it would be to be married to him, and so far the positives overwhelmed the negatives.

-TIN MAN-

The initial excitement of Leonard's discovery was now a few days old, it was now Monday and that started with what he considered to be the most important part of any experiment, the report, so others could see how it was done and could duplicate and refine their work. The importance of the report was indisputable, which didn't do a thing to make writing it anything less than pure hard work, boring and tedious. Leonard, like most experimental scientists, would rather spend a hundred hours in the lab then one hour writing a report, so he stared at his computer, then for an hour he put his thoughts together, before his hands could begin to type. He knew he needed to get it in draft form for when Dr Hogan returned, so that they could present this new material to the Army. So with a deep breath, he continued to type, the beginning of this ordeal now entered and engaged.

Leonard worked on the report when he wasn't working in his lab, and at first things were going well, until something unusual happened, actually it was wonderful. Penny showed up at his lab on a Tuesday afternoon, to see what he did, she seemed really interested, he was both shocked and proud. That day he showed her some of is laser generated holographic images, it was new experimentation he was working and he was really excited about it, but it really surprised him how excited Penny seemed to be about it too.

"Sometimes I forget how smart you are." She told him after his demonstration, then for a couple of moments she just stared at him.

The look in her eyes was a look he couldn't describe, however her passion afterward, was something he understood quickly, and for the first time in his life, he had sex with a woman in his lab. That afternoon went by quickly and he ended up too flustered to do much of anything the rest of the day. Thursday surprised him again, Penny was there, she wanted to see more and he wanted to show her more, the way she looked at him after his magnetic demonstration, made him realize she was amazed by his work and surprisingly his mind. That afternoon was also lost, when her excitement at what he showed her flowed over to the passion she gave him in return.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Howard's Idea

Leonard had been working on the report, on-and-off, for over a week, sometimes get side-tracked thinking about Penny, they seemed to have gotten closer the last couple of weeks and Leonard found himself thinking about her more and more. It was during one of those times, while he was taking a break and thinking about her that Howard stopped by his office to talk to him. The discussion quickly turning to the report Leonard was working on and success in the testing, including the repeatability of Leonard's work. Leonard had no inkling then, but Howard started to formulate an idea, one that both of them would never have realized what it would lead to, probably if Leonard knew he would have kicked him out of his office right then. Howard pressed Leonard about the new material discovery and then he discussed with Leonard about the possibility of using the new material to prevent micro meteorite penetration of space suits. Their discussion continued for the whole afternoon, both agreeing, in the end, that Howard's idea could be worked in parallel to the ballistic armor program. Then innocently, in jest, they gave their space suit project a secret code name, Howard naming it project Tin Man, from the character in the Wizard of Oz, never did either of them know it was a project that would change their lives.

Howard was still an astronaut and so linked to NASA, therefore, he was able to borrow a space suit, to help him and Leonard design Tin Man. They decided they would both work a couple of hours extra each day on the project, so as not use university time for their research and construction. They were also even able to get Raj to drive Sheldon home each night, so Leonard could work later. It was really tough at first, the girls, Penny and Bernadette, complaining about them working so much, but after a while they got use to it and adjusted to their men working the additional hours. Leonard hadn't seen too much of Penny for a couple of weeks, so one Friday night when he had dinner with her, he was surprised to find out she was going back to school. Leonard really felt bad, he had been working so much that he felt like he had been deserting her, not being around to help her. He, of course, over thought the entire situation, and did the completely wrong thing by writing a paper for her, so the next week, Penny didn't care how long he worked because she didn't want to see him anyway, she was so mad at him.

The most amazing thing however was that Leonard and Howard were able to keep their pet project a secret from their friends and the university. Working late in the evening and only when alone, they were able to keep everyone from finding out what they were working on. Leonard had it easier than Howard for the next couple of weeks, Penny still a little aggravated at him and working additional hours, let Leonard put in the long hours at the university without complaint from her. Howard didn't have it much worse though, Bernadette was working on a new drug certification, so Howard only had to make excuses the nights he came home later than her. It was sneaky and exciting, like a game, and Howard and Leonard, soon found themselves enjoying the mystery they created over their secret project.

The space suit, when it came from NASA, included the design data and the first thing Howard and Leonard noticed was that the strength of the Super Kevlar was going to allow them to produce a suit that was much less bulky than the current design. This would be a huge advantage for astronauts and NASA, serving as additional motivation for them to continue their work. Howard telling Leonard a thinner lighter suit design would be of great interest to NASA, and a big plus for the space program. The advantages where huge, with Super Kevlar, the space suit's bulk would now be only defined by the environmental systems in the suit, not the thickness needed for protection. Leonard and Howard now concentrated on making more Super Kevlar and began to put together the outer shell of the material for their new suit. Howard's sewing abilities, in making Halloween costumes, now helping them in the suits assembly, the new suit in a size that would fit them both. The engineer in Howard really shined, as he used his computerized design software to design each piece and then integrate the parts to piece the suit together. Leonard was amazed and impressed with Howard's capabilities and assumed the position as his assistant in the project, assembling the components and being Howard's right hand.

-TIN MAN-

It took a few weeks before they put together the space suit's outer covering and one Friday evening they stood their admiring their handiwork before locking their prototype away, down in the unused storage rooms in the university, near the back loading docks. They felt they accomplished a major milestone and once they gutted the real space suits environmental system and installed it in their suit, they would be ready to present it to NASA for evaluation. Leonard and Howard where really feeling good that night and Penny was now talking and hanging with her boyfriend again, so they took their surprised girlfriend and wife out to dinner and then to a club to dance, the guys were in high spirits the whole night and the girls just enjoying their great night out with their men. Penny more than elated at the sudden increased attention of her boyfriend.

Saturday found Howard and Leonard with the group watching a Star Wars movie, then a chick flick, per agreement with the girls, Star Trek temporary banded for Sheldon, due to Amy's run in with Wil Wheaton during a 'Fun with Flags' taping. After Star Wars movie ended, during the DVD change over to the chick flick, Howard whispered to Leonard, joking that they should be tailors for the storm troopers suits, because their suit was so much more protective, Leonard smiled and nodded. The rest night went by pleasantly and during the drive home, Howard was listening to the radio, when a special request by the station asked for donations for the wounded warrior program, caught his attention. The seemingly simple advertisement made Howard think, which would began the chain of events that would soon make the project spin out of the control. Now spacemen, astronauts, storm troopers and soldiers occupied Howard's mind during the day all Sunday, creating the obsession in Howard, their space suit program was going to take on a new purpose, one that neither Leonard nor Howard had originally planned.

It started on Monday afternoon, Leonard found Howard on the computer working on his CADCAM model, of the exoskeleton. Howard was using most of the parts from his robot sex doll and some new structure to fashion the mechanical device to allow the heavy suit to move like a man in earth's gravity. Leonard had walked in on a very preoccupied Howard, his eyes locked on his computer monitor, his hands and fingers massaging the keys of his keyboard like a musician playing the piano. Leonard couldn't help smile at his friends concentration and stood over Howard for ten minutes until he understood what Howard was doing and began to worry.

"Howard, we don't need all that structure for a space suit. An astronaut will be able to move in the suit fine in zero G's, the way we are building it now." Leonard knew that was not what Howard was designing, but he hoped Howard would get the hint and stop this wild plan Leonard saw him developing.

"No, but for a soldier, in the field, a motorized exoskeleton is needed for him to move around normally." Howard never took his eyes off the screen or his hands off the keyboard, while he responded to Leonard.

"Howard, we were suppose to making a space suit, not new armor for Storm Troopers. What are you thinking you're doing?"

"Putting something together, so guys don't get killed or maimed in combat, Leonard. I really think we have something here, don't you? Leonard this could work for NASA too, the exoskeleton providing astronauts strength to move large objects in space."

Leonard, like Howard knew people who had served in the Middle East and even people that had been wounded. However, Leonard also remembered about Dr Hogan's son and why Hogan wanted to built the new material in the first place, Hogan would jump at the chance to built a protective suit for soldiers. Leonard could see that what Howard was working on was possible and he originally was suppose to be helping Hogan on Army advanced body armor, so he thought 'what the hell'. "Tell me what you got Howard."

-TIN MAN-

It took several weeks to install the exoskeleton, even though they used all the servos and control devices from Howard's old robot. Once assembled for their first test, Leonard was by default the tester because Howard had to work on the external equipment if the test in order for the suit to work. However to both their surprise, the suit powered up on the first time and moved with Leonard in it, like a robot, but it still moved, they had done it, it worked. But to operate the suit required mechanical servos and gyros, it weighed more than the man in it and it needed to balance itself, both critical for it to move. They had tested it most of Saturday, having to stop by 5 PM when the suit gyro failed and Leonard was left sitting on his ass, unable to get up. That evening they found themselves sitting in the lab drinking bottles of water, from all the sweating they did that day, discussing the whole test.

"Howard, the suit worked, but I still felt like a 1930's movie robot, the way it moved. Also we can't depend on one gyro set."

"I can make it better. I can take the small computer out of the Lisatronic robot to allow more human movements and I can put in a backup gyro set. I can also get a heads up display for weapons."

"Weapons?… Howard who said anything about weapons?"

"Leonard, I was thinking about a laser in a turreted shoulder set up, like that movie Predator."

"Howard, you're nuts."

"Leonard, think of it, a laser would allow bomb disposal men to blow up bombs at a distance, or a soldier to look at a target and neutralize it in a millisecond. A laser is the perfect weapon for this suit and the weight allows a complete fire control system with a laser turret. Also, I know NASA would like something like that."

"Howard, lasers aren't miniature pieces of equipment, it will never work."

"I have seen some of the small lasers you use in the lab, I could easily put that on a shoulder turret and link it to a helmet."

"Howard, those lasers are plugged into the special 220 Volt, high current electrical receptacles that are used to charge large capacitor discharge systems. You expect this suit to go into battle with a long extension cord?"

"No. You have been working with chemical reaction packs to give one shot laser bursts, for the military, haven't you. I suggest we put a couple on the suit, in a back pack, to give you a few laser shots. Like a revolver."

By the time they left that Saturday, Howard had convinced Leonard to provide him a working laser for testing. They didn't know their project was getting them now deeper and deeper into trouble.

-TIN MAN-

Leonard was surprised how easy the laser fit in, Howard was amazing with his engineering knowledge from making things work in space. He used an old military helmet targeting system and the heads up display program from a video game to produce a working system. The laser was powered by newly developed experimental laser packs, which Howard incorporated 3 into the suits back pack. The laser packs where two separate chemicals that when mixed produced a chemical reaction that resulted in huge amounts of electrons, stripped from their atoms, to produce huge amounts of electrical energy, for a very short time. However, there was a catch, this energy had to be used in 2 seconds or too much would be built up and an explosion would result as the energy was released. Howard and Leonard developed an electrical dump system failsafe, that would automatically dump the electrical energy into a electrical radiator and the suit batteries to prevent an explosion, in case laser use was aborted. In addition, Howard talked Leonard into coming up with a quick fire system, to fire the laser quicker that the 10 second normal full power charge, so before they were done, the laser could respond, with less that full charge, in 3 seconds of operator command. They were now ready to test their weapon.

It was another Saturday afternoon and Howard and Leonard were locked in Leonard's laser lab, with all their new equipment. They didn't need the suit, so they had an improvised set up, for Leonard to wear, to hold the laser turret, and the helmet, both plugged into Howard's laptop.

"Okay Leonard, we have the dummy packs installed, so you can practice a couple times without the full power laser. You just say the words I told you and the computer will respond to your voice, like we trained it. Also, I rigged a laser pointer to the laser to come on a couple seconds before firing to let you know if you are on target. So anytime you are ready." Leonard put on the helmet, Howard helping him adjust it and then strapping the laser turret on his shoulder. Howard then started the video camera, nodding to him and Leonard took a breath, "Targeting" The computer recognized Leonard's voice and gave the commands to turn on the eyepiece over Leonard's left eyeglass lens, providing him target crosshairs for the laser.

Leonard swallowed, "Laser Energize" began the simulated chemical mixing in the laser packs, which were dummies, the computer then responded to Leonard, "Countdown" a moment later

"Ten…..Abort" the countdown for the ten second full chemical reaction had started, the computer telling Leonard he had only to say 'Abort' to stop the process.

"Nine…..Abort"

"Eight….Abort"

"Seven….Abort" Leonard now put the crosshairs over the burnt Cylon toy figure that was today's target.

"Six…..Abort"

"Five….Abort" Leonard couldn't help feel nervous as sweat started to form on his forehead.

"Four…..Abort" Howard checked his screen the computer was operating perfectly

"Three…..Abort"

"Two…..Abort" Leonard almost jumped when the laser from the pointer appeared on the toy figure, exactly where his eyepiece crosshairs were laying.

"One…Abort"

The computer announced, "Ready" and Leonard froze, it all seemed too real, and he forgot what to say. The helmet prevented him from hearing Howard yell 'Fire', so after two seconds the computer went failsafe.

"Laser abort. System discharge"

Leonard stood there in a daze, until Howard's rapping on the helmet made him take it off.

"Leonard what happened, did it break? What went wrong?"

"Me Howard, My God it was so real, I panicked."

"Okay, first time, but are you ready now?"

"Yeah Howard, lets do it again."

"Okay Leonard, quick fire this time."

Leonard put the helmet back on his head, and waited till Howard gave him the thumbs up.

"Targeting" his eyepiece came alive, the crosshairs seemed like his friend now.

Leonard's voice was now confident, "Laser Quick Charge" Howard watched the computer go to the quick three second chemical mix routine.

"Countdown" The computer spoke to Leonard again.

"Three…..Abort."

Leonard's whole mind concentrated on the crosshairs.

"Two….Abort."

The targeting dot appeared on the figure again just were the crosshairs were.

"One….Abort."

Leonard, was now ready.

"Ready"

"Fire" He said without hesitation. In less than a second the beam from the laser pointer went out then on, pulsating on the target for almost a full second. Leonard had simulated killing his first Cylon.

The rest of the testing was anticlimactic, the laser actually firing and killing action figures, the only difference from the simulation. The laser and chemical packs worked perfectly and the targeting system was accurate to a half of a centimeter, so the test was a big success. They didn't know they had sealed their fate.

-TIN MAN-

A week later the laser was installed and the prototype was done, Howard had refined the movement system and now the suit walked more like a man than a robot, The helmet consisted of a Super Kevlar enclosure that was laminated in a plastic and looked like a cross between a storm trooper's and astronaut's helmet. The suit had a large back pack, which contained special space batteries for power, three chemical fuel packs for the laser, the computer controls and a manned maneuvering pack, which would allow the wearer to jump. Once in the suit, Leonard couldn't not help but feel like something akin to Iron Man, the heads up display Howard put in, like the one in the movie, except without all the capabilities, after all the suit couldn't fly. But the wearer could talk to the computer, and the computer would talk to the wearer, again not like Iron Man, the computer and wearer could only say a few preplanned words to each other.

Late the next Sunday night, they did their final test, they had been planning it all week. There was a university basket ball gym near where they had the suit, so after dark they locked the gym doors and moved the suit in. Spreading mats over most of the floor, to not scratch the wood, Leonard walked around in the suit, getting its feel and trying to find problems. After both of them were happy, the real excitement started, Leonard jumped, the noise manned maneuvering pack was terrifying to Howard outside the suit, but Leonard jumped from one side of the gym to the other and actually landed on his feet, Howard's gyros doing their job and special cushioning soles in his boots, plus the exoskeleton, absorbing the force of his landing. Leonard accomplished 10 more jumps until power was down to 50 percent, and he had to stop, but now he had confidence in its capabilities. They finished their test of the targeting system by targeting items across the gym, killing them with the laser pointer, unable to fire the real one. By 3 AM, they were done, it all worked, they were ready, and as soon as Dr Hogan came back, the Army was going to be in for a big surprise.


	3. Chapter 3

**WARNING**

**THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS CRIME, MURDER AND RAPE, SO PLEASE DO NOT READ IT IF YOU WOULD BE OFFENDED.**

**WARNING**

Chapter 3 - Wrong Place, Wrong Time

The next week was restful for Howard and Leonard, they refined some parts of the suit and its systems, but it was done, the only thing preventing its unveiling being Dr Hogan himself. This project was Hogan's baby, the final chapter of a brilliant scientist's career, and Leonard and Howard could not take that away from the man, they would wait for his return. Leonard went back to his report, and worked during the day and part of the evenings, since Penny was working late all week, he was hoping to see her that weekend. It was a very normal week and Leonard took Sheldon to work that Friday, thinking how happy this weekend would be and how nice it would be to spend it with Penny.

-TIN MAN-

It was 2 PM when the stolen car, containing 3 men, pulled up to the bank a couple doors from the Cheesecake Factory. The driver was nicknamed 'Pony', because he drove like the wind and was fast in everything he did. The passenger was nicknamed 'Breaker' he was a goon, not very smart, but built like a tall rock, he lived by being a bouncer, a person who hurts people and by crime, like today. In the back seat was 'JT', better known as Jim Thompson, he was just bad, already spending ten years in jail for killing a man in a fight, and that was only one they knew about. JT was in the back seat, because he trusted no one and wanted Pony and Breaker where he could see them. They were heavily armed, handguns, automatic rifles they got on the black market and chest body armor, like the police used. They wanted the money from the bank, and JT was going to make sure they got it, all of it.

JT was the one that organized this crew, he wanted to make a quick score, the petty crimes he pulled before not providing him enough money between jobs. The bank was perfect, lots of money for just a little work, and he thought if they just went in shooting it would be over quick so they could be in and out. JT liked the shooting part, he liked guns, they gave him the power of life and death over people, that was a big rush for him, he just liked it. He also liked, in California, it was easy for him, a criminal, to get guns, even illegal automatic weapons, while honest people were restricted by the state. The state also made it hard for regular people to carry guns around, so he didn't have to worry about someone shooting back, they were all sheep and victims to him. It all made JT feel powerful and in control, that was even better than sex for him, because it lasted longer and he felt better afterwards. It was with that rush of adrenaline that JT got out of the car and headed to the front door of the bank.

It was a quiet day at the bank, it was not busy because it was in the third week of the month, and this Friday was not a normal payday for most people, so there were only a few customers, the employees and a security guard. Every person in the bank was either thinking about the errands they still had to do today or, in the case of the employees, what they were going to do that weekend. None of them had even imagined how that was all going to change as the three masked men entered the bank, JT immediately firing his gun, killing the security guard, who was just taking a sip of his coffee.

"Everybody on the floor, now!" JT waved his gun back and forth to emphasize his command.

Breaker stayed near the door, out of sight and watched, while Pony moved towards the teller line, then jumped over the counter. JT stayed in the center of the lobby, constantly moving and pointing his automatic rifle, his finger on the trigger, constantly flexing, looking for an excuse to shoot. The power JT now felt was like a drug to him, he was grinning like a clown under the mask. None of them knew that when a lone 19 year old tiny redhead teller had seen them come in the door, and watched the gun come out in JT's hand, she had pushed the silent alarm button through instinct.

Pony grabbed a young pretty brunette teller by the hair and pulled her off the floor, "Fill these bags with money."

"If you put any of the that dye money in there, I'll kill you." JT added, pointing the barrel at the scared girl.

The girl was terrified, started crying and couldn't move, "Move it!" Pony then nudged her with the barrel of his gun, soon realizing it was a mistake, the girl cried harder and Pony now noticed the puddle forming around her feet.

Pony pushed the girl back to the floor, "Lay down!"

"What the hell is going on?" JT was mad, this was taking too long.

"She pissed herself!" Pony snickered.

"KILL HER!" JT was really mad now.

The girl started to sob uncontrollably, Pony really didn't want to kill her, so he looked at an older, slightly overweight teller, and said quietly "Can you fill these, without pissing yourself." and the woman nodded, slowly getting up. He looked at JT "It's good now!"

JT was still mad, "Be quick, or people are going to die!"

The teller was quick, she filled the first bag from the teller drawers, putting aside certain cash bundles, telling Pony they were dye filled. She got the one bag filled and then filled the next with the cash located in one of the opened large drawers in the vault, Pony wished he had picked her first when he saw how quick she was. Pony grabbed the full bags, smiling at the woman, "Good job lady." then jumped over the counter and looked at JT "All done." They then both moved to the door.

As Breaker lead them out the door, Pony followed with the bags, and JT brought up the rear. However, before going out, JT turned, "Assholes!" and squeezed the trigger of his automatic rifle, spraying the bank interior with bullets until his gun's magazine was empty, snickering as he left. It his wake, he left two wounded women and a dead teller, a bullet through her head, the woman who had filled Pony's bags with money.

Breaker, Pony and JT ran around the corner to their car, JT locking a fresh magazine into his rifle. They were about to open the doors to the car when the first police car arrived, blocking the bank parking lot, trapping them, their car now useless. JT did the first thing he could think of and emptied his rifle's new magazine into the police car, wounding one of the officers. However the second, pulled out an automatic rifle from the car and immediately returned fire, driving the three of them for cover behind their car. They were now in trouble, the sound of other police car sirens coming closer and the constant fire from the other officer of the car JT shot up. The needed to get away.

"Let's get out of here. Pony lay down covering fire, while we back off, then we will cover you." JT was very pleased with his plan.

"Screw that, we are all going together or all staying here, I'm not covering nobody's ass." Pony glared at JT.

JT looked at Pony with hate, he needed the asshole now, but he would settle this later, "Okay, we all move and fire." A few seconds later, the three criminals all opened up on the officer and backed away, the officer having to duck behind his car, while they moved to safety behind a nearby building. They were temporarily in the clear now.

Pony lead the way again, JT in the middle and Breaker picking up the rear. They quickly moved past a couple buildings, and were moving by the Cheesecake Factory, when Pony stopped, holding up his arm as he looked around the corner, "SHIT!". JT moved up to see what Pony was looking at, then swore too. There were several police cars and they had their escape route blocked, they weren't going that way now. They eased their way back, the way they came, and stopped again as they saw a couple of rifle armed police moving near the building they had just moved around, they were now surrounded. JT looked around, there was only one option, so he nudged his comrades towards the door of the Cheesecake Factory.

Penny had just picked up her tip from the table, it was only a 5 percent tip again, she felt more like a indentured servant than a waitress. She thought, she could actually make a living, at her job, if people would just give her the socially normal 15 percent, but no she ended up barely making it week to week, serving people who didn't give a crap about her. These were her thoughts, when she heard the screams and turned to see the three armed men enter the dining area, yelling for everyone to get on the floor.

JT didn't really know what he was doing, he could have walked in on a full dining room full of people, more than he could ever control, but luck was temporarily smiling on him, the lunch rush was over and there were only a couple of tables occupied. They quickly rounded up everyone, 37 people, and separated the men from the women, beating one almost senseless, because he wouldn't leave his wife. Pony was actually able to convince JT to put the 12 men in the freezer and lock it, over JT's first suggesting of killing them. They now had 25 women to use as shields, and JT figured he would trade them for his freedom.

They moved tables and chairs to make an obstacle course for anyone who tried to come in the door and locked all the other doors in the building. They then set up more tables as barriers to hide behind, dividing up the women and having them sit in front of each barrier. JT personally picked the woman for his barrier, he liked them young and pretty, so when he liked one, he just reached down and grabbed them by the blouse to pull them up. JT liked his power over women, he was always much stronger than them and abusing them was fun, so he treated them roughly when he pulled them up off the floor actually tearing a couple of the girls blouses in the process, then laughing and leering at what he exposed. Penny was the third girl he picked, and it took all her will power not to try and kick him when he yanked her up off the floor ripping her uniform blouse in the process.

The women sat terrified for over an half hour, the whole time Pony and Breaker sitting in the middle of the restaurant with their guns watching them, the girls JT picked especially scared by the way the man had looked and treated them. JT was under cover at the door way, and by the way he was shouting, Pony knew he was trying to negotiate their escape, by trading hostages for a way out. What really worried Pony was he heard JT say something about killing hostages, one each hour, in a couple of hours, if his demands were not met. Pony didn't want to be involved in a slaughter, if they would get caught after doing something like that, their remaining lives would be hell. Pony looked at the women, some of them had heard JT too, and were now crying hysterically, he didn't like the way things were going.

JT moved back to his comrades, then looked at the girls, "SHUT UP!", which made the crying ones now whimper, as they were held by their friends. Penny had one of the new girls wrapped in her arms, trying to calm her down, when she saw the man JT smile at her and give her a wink, as he moved to talk to Pony.

"What's this about killing people every hour." Pony whispered, looking at the girls.

Just as quietly JT responded, "Don't get your panties in a bundle, pussy boy. We'll shoot the men in the freezer first before we even think of the girls. Besides, I want to have a little fun with a couple of them, if the police drag this on too long."

Pony just shook his head, what the hell did he get himself into, 'This asshole is nuts' he thought. But he was stuck now, they were all in this together, so he would just go along until they were out of there. Pony figured he could just shoot JT and be done with him, when this was over.

Breaker had heard the conversation between Pony and JT, his hearing was much better than they thought. He didn't like the idea of killing the pretty girls, however killing the men didn't bother him at all. He also liked the idea JT had about getting a little more personal with the girls if this drug on and thought, he should pick a girl or two he liked. It also dawned on him, he should pick one to take with him, because he knew JT wasn't going to leave without a couple of them for insurance, and after they were safe, well then they could have fun, Breaker smiled.

The police surrounded the Cheesecake Factory, quickly set up a line of cars and barricades to secure the perimeter. Occasionally a few SWAT members would move around the building to look for weaknesses, but for the most part the police were afraid to move, there were too many innocent people inside, so they waited for the negotiators. It was a short while after the stalemate had settled in that the press arrived and they did their best to catch up, this was going to be great for the evening news.

JT surveyed their fortress, it was really pure good luck they picked this place. There were windows on one side but they were windows designed to protect the customers from the sun, so you could see out easily, but it was extremely hard to see in. They weren't too many doors and they had piled up all kinds of stuff in front of them to block them. The dinning room floor was also to their advantage, it was open, so they made little bunkers for each of them with tables, to hide behind if they were assaulted, then with the girls spread around the outside of each bunker, no law abiding cop would shoot one of those girls to get at them. Yeah, this was good, they had the advantage, they were going to escape, he just knew it.

Each of the three of them took turns at the door, while the other two rested in their little safe bunkers. JT was just walking to his when he stopped before Penny and grabbed the hair of the new girl that was in Penny's arms. Penny almost jumped up until the barrel of his pistol was pushed into her face. "Be nice, we can have a little fun later, you and me." JT then dragged the pretty, tiny brunette behind the tables with him, her crying now starting all over, again.

The girl was very pretty, young and petite, weighing less than 100 pounds, and JT knew he could easily control her with no problems. He sat down and pulled her in his lap, ripping her blouse more and pulling her bra off so he could fondle her breasts. She cried louder and he saw the blonde, that had been holding her, turn to glare at him. "You turn around and mind you business and you shut up, or we'll end this now!" JT then put the barrel of his handgun to the brunette's head while glaring at Penny. Penny turned her head, and sat there trying not to get upset, as she heard the whimpers and soft pleading, from the girl she knew was only 18 years old.

Time moved slowly, the negotiators called and JT explained to them, over the phone, what he said about killing hostages, which made some of the girls cry again. JT wouldn't let the girls go to the bathroom, he liked being cruel, so a couple of girls who couldn't hold it any longer, wet themselves, and the smell of pee was getting into the air. JT finally let the little brunette go, after about an hour, and she slowly walked around to the front, to Penny again. She was stripped to the waist and when she sat next to Penny, her skirt rode up and Penny could see she had no panties, the bastard had raped her. She didn't cry anymore either, so when Penny brought her back into her arms, she just laid against Penny, staring ahead.

Penny held the little girl, trying not to cry herself, she was so scared, she felt like a chill was running down her spine. She couldn't believe this was all happening, she never imagined she would see such things, in her life, much less be in the middle of them. Penny had never had a loaded gun put in her face, it terrified her, the man, JT, was nuts and he was a killer, if you didn't do what he wanted, you were dead. Penny began to feel she may die that night, and the thought brought even more fears in her.

Penny just continued to hold the poor girl, he had raped, holding her was comforting to Penny and she hoped it was comforting to her. The maniac had practically told Penny, she was next, and if she tried to fight or prevent him, she knew he would kill her. She wondered if it would be better to die, the thought of being raped by him so repulsive to her, but then she thought of Leonard, standing over her grave, his face, he would cry and it made a tear rolled down Penny's cheek. Leonard would beg her to come back to him, he would never desert her no matter how damaged she was after this, he would still love her and hold her, Penny sat there making up her mind, she would try to survive for Leonard.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Helplessness

It was 5 PM, the news now had their Cheesecake Factory hostage story for the evening special report. Leonard and Sheldon where on their way to the comic book store, Leonard was feeling pretty good, the Tin Man project had a working prototype and his preliminary paper was almost done on the material it was made of. He was looking forward to a nice weekend with Penny, he really felt he had been neglecting her over the past few weeks, so this weekend he was going to make it special for her. However now he was going to spend time with Sheldon, Raj and Howard, because Penny wouldn't get home from work till 11 PM tonight and Leonard needed to kill time before he saw her. He was going over, in his mind, ideas for planning this wonderful weekend with her, when he pulled into the comic book parking lot. Leonard then followed Sheldon into the store only to find Stuart and a couple of patrons staring at the TV behind the counter.

"What's so interesting, Stuart?" Leonard smiled at his friend.

"Leonard, have you seen or heard the news?" Stuart was very excited which made Leonard confused, something was up.

"No we don't waste our time with that social drama." Sheldon dismissed them all as he walked to the comic books.

Leonard shook his head, "Sheldon doesn't let me turn the radio on. So what's up?" however, Stuart looked really agitated and looked back at the TV so Leonard stopped to watch what Stuart had been looking at.

The longer Leonard watched, the more his stomach sickened, they were showing the Cheesecake Factory and talking about a hostage situation. Penny was suppose to be working now, so with trembling fingers he immediately sent her a text, then stared at his screen, nothing. He watched the TV, they said that workers and customers were hostages, so Leonard now tried calling Penny, nothing, he didn't know that Penny's phone was in her work locker on vibrate. Leonard felt helpless and kept watching the news, getting sicker by the minute, until he heard the information that made him want to throw up. The reporter said that an unknown source from the mayor's office had said that the criminals had threatened to start killing hostages, if their demands were not met.

Leonard felt light headed, this couldn't be happening, not to his Penny, he thought, 'Please no, please no', he was almost in tears. Leonard didn't even realized Raj and Howard walked into the comic book store, they had agreed earlier to meet them there after work. Howard stared at Leonard, he looked so pale, then to the TV, that Leonard was staring at, after a couple of minutes he understood Leonard's expression. The reporter seemed to done providing information, because then she said 'Our hopes and prayers go out to the hostages and their families." Howard was going to try comfort Leonard when he saw Leonard's face change. Howard watched the pale expression change as the red of anger came over Leonard's face as he turned to head towards the door with a determination that surprised Howard. Howard, stood there for a few seconds wondering what changed, then it dawned on him, he ran after Leonard, "Leonard!" Sheldon and Raj just looked at each other, both concerned about how they were going to get home since their rides had just run out the door.

Howard got to the parking lot just in time to see Leonard's car hit the street, its tires spinning, heading away. Howard shook his head and quickly went to his car, he knew where Leonard was going, he saw it on his face, so Howard pulled his car out and headed to Cal Tech. Howard drove quickly, but did not speed, he knew Leonard would be still there when he got there, it took a little while to power and set up the suit.

-TIN MAN-

Howard walked quickly down the hall to the storage room, he actually felt the electrical ozone in the air, when he put his hand on the double doors, and opened them to go in. He saw Leonard scrambling around the suit and the electronic hookups, getting it ready, but he still didn't seem to understand that he couldn't do it on his own. "Leonard what the hell are you doing?"

Leonard's head shot around to look at Howard, "They are going to kill Penny. I'm not letting that happen."

"Leonard, let the police do their job. They will end it and everything will be fine."

Leonard then looked at Howard, straight in the eyes, his stare like ice, "I'm going Howard. Nothing or Nobody is stopping me."

Howard folded his arms, "You can't run up the suit or even get into it without help, so there, I'm stopping you."

Leonard walked up to Howard, and Howard became afraid, Leonard was going to hit him, Leonard's hands were balled into fists. However, Leonard just stopped in front of him, and Howard saw a tear in Leonard's eye, "Damn it Howard! What if Bernadette was in there, what would you do to protect Bernadette?"

Howard swallowed, he knew what he would do, he would go after her, he stared at Leonard and his resolve melted. "Yeah….Okay….get your coveralls on, and I'll get the power and set up work done."

A very small serious smile formed on Leonard's lips, and he nodded, "Thanks buddy."

Howard nodded but thought, 'Yeah sure, we are going to get in so much trouble'.

Howard still had the keys from one of the bread van type trucks the university used to transport oversized equipment. They had used the same vehicle to test the suit the first time they took it out. Howard pulled the truck up, so it was against the loading docks, and then did a check to see if anyone was around, thanking his stars that it was Friday and everyone had left early. When Leonard got the okay on the radio he walked out to the docks and backed into the back of the truck, Howard immediately closing the doors behind him. Howard then plugged the suit into a power converter, in the truck, to top off the batteries on the way, and checked his radio link and remote system monitoring. Finally Howard hooked up cargo straps on the suits lifting devices to secure the suit, so Leonard wouldn't fall over during the drive. They were ready to go.

-TIN MAN-

JT had just finished another turn at the door, and it was Breaker's turn. "Hey dumb shit, you're next." JT then walked over to his bunker and stopped before Penny, the small 18 year old waitress was sleeping in her lap, a table cloth Penny grabbed nearby draped over her. The scene looked cute to JT, but he wasn't too much into cute, so he was about to grab Penny, when he remembered how much that little brunette cried and he didn't feel like hearing her cry now, if he pulled the blonde away. He decided he could wait a little and would do the blonde next time, so he reached over to pull a redhead up by the hair, who hadn't cried the whole time and was trying to act tuff. He smiled and thought, 'We'll see how tuff she is' as he pulled her into his little bunker. Penny cringed again as she heard the whimpering after a while, she knew she was suppose to be next and she knew he would rape her soon, she was so scared, so she closed her eyes and thought of Leonard.

An hour later the animal let the redhead go and made her get in front of the barrack again. Penny couldn't look at her, she felt that the only reason the girl was raped was because of her and she was ashamed. Penny was so afraid, she held on to the little brunette in her lap, knowing as long as she held her she was a little bit safe from being raped. She was trying so hard not to cry, that man, didn't care about them and anything would set him off. She tried to think about things outside this horror she was living, tried to think about happy things, things that made her feel good, Leonard immediately came to mind. She thought how safe she felt wrapped in his arms at night when they slept together, only Leonard made her feel that way, and she so wanted to feel that way now, safe in Leonard's arms. The more she thought about it the more it upset her until Penny couldn't take it anymore and gave up as the tears flowed down her face.

-TIN MAN-

Howard had to find a secluded place to off load Leonard, but still close enough so he didn't have to walk that far, he had to conserve power. Howard was having no luck driving around the streets and even got an ugly look from a policeman, when he went down the wrong street and was made to turn around. He was getting very frustrated and was thinking about what Superman would do, when he saw it, an old falling down warehouse and one of the vehicle entrance doors was opened. Howard drove in, the only witness a old drunk sitting with a bottle in the alley across the street.

Howard stopped the truck inside, then opened the suit back pack to start his checkouts. He needed to make sure all the electronics, especially in the laser circuitry, were working properly, before he took the safeties off the chemical reaction packs, they didn't need any explosions. The circuitry checks took almost 20 minutes and Leonard was driving Howard nuts with all of his questions on when he would be done.

"Howard, come on, how long is this going to take."

"It will take as long as it takes. I am not putting power to the weapon until I know it won't blow up."

"I'll take the chance Howard, button me up."

"Well, I'm not risking blowing up so you can be a Hero, two minutes earlier, so shut up!"

Somehow hearing Howard say 'Hero', didn't feel right to Leonard, it was almost a dirty word. Leonard did not feel like a Hero, he just wanted Penny safe, if anything he was being selfish, he was only thinking of Penny, he never thought about the other people in there. He never said another word till Howard completed his checks.

Howard completed the electrical check and took the safeties off the chemical packs, all three of them. He then closed the back pack and took the straps off that held the suit up, Leonard was now mobile. He stood in front of Leonard, one more test to do. "Leonard do the maneuvering test".

Leonard went through the preplanned moves that showed that all the power assisted limbs worked properly and all the servos were operating. It took less than a minute and when it was over, "Feels good Howard, I'm ready."

Howard opened the back door and stepped outside, watching as over a quarter ton of suit and man moved to the van back and stepped out. Howard gasped as he looked at the suit in the fading sunlight of the opened door, it was amazing and scary at the same time. It was somewhere in-between an Army soldiers body armor and a space suit in bulk and it was in the off white color of a space suit. You could barely see the aluminum bars from the exoskeleton under the fabric on each side of its legs, arms and torso, and combined with the special boots and helmet it towered over 7 feet high, which was really tall to Howard. The helmet was probably the scariest part, because they intentionally tried to make it not look like a space suit, so it actually looked…evil. It was really beautiful, the only thing taking away from its clean lines, was the large back pack, that was needed to run everything.

Leonard looked down at Howard, who was standing there with his mouth open, "Howard, I'm ready." Howard then came out of his trance and nodded. It was another couple of seconds before Leonard heard Howard's voice and saw the GPS map on the head's up display.

"Okay Leonard, the blue dot is you and the red dot is where the bad guys are. Be careful buddy. I'll try to help as much as possible, but all I got is audio and system monitoring, so I can't see what you are doing, okay."

"Okay, thanks Howard, here I go." Leonard walked out of the warehouse and started up the street to the Cheesecake Factory.

The drunk man watched the man-robot walk out the building, turn and go down the street, his eyes wide in shock. He stared until it was out of sight, then looked at the bottle of cheap wine he was drinking, "So much for buying the cheap stuff." he mumbled to himself.

Leonard followed the map Howard had up on the heads-up display, he was two blocks away, and he was in a hurry, Penny now was the only thing on his mind. The two blocks seem to take forever, he even had to go down an alley to avoid a police road block and get to the area surrounding the Cheesecake Factory. He almost stopped completely when he saw all the police around the building and he suddenly had second thoughts, but just as suddenly his fear of Penny being hurt came back into his mind. He couldn't let her get hurt or die, he had to save her, otherwise he could never live with himself again. Howard told him to move like he owned the place, so Leonard moved straight to the police line, he had no intention of letting anything stop him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Shock and Awe

The police officers on perimeter detail, were moving around in their places, trying to stay alert, unlike the negotiators that were talking to the criminals or the SWAT Team that was moving around the building checking for some advantage, the officers manning the perimeter were just waiting for orders to do something. Yes they were preventing people from crowding the scene and were there to make sure no one escaped from the scene, but that really didn't required much in the way of effort, so they just talked and moved around to keep busy. Some of them were drinking coffee, or eating, others were talking to each other and a few where just leaning on barricades or squad cars either looking a the Cheesecake Factory or at the crowd. Everything was just stagnant at that moment and so where they, stagnant and actually bored.

The lull that had fallen on the scene actually worked to Leonard's benefit as he approached out of the dark to the police line. One or two officers saw him come out of the shadows, their minds refusing to admit what they were seeing, it was just too incredible. Their jaws dropped, their eyes bulged, they dropped their coffee, but the main thing was they didn't move or make a sound, the shock to their minds so great. The police officers who weren't looking in that direction, never really heard it before they saw it move past their lines, a quarter ton of man and machine moving purposely past them, towards the Cheesecake Factory. The thump of each step, the whirl of servos, and mechanical noise of the metal exoskeleton, finally reaching their ears as it passed their line. It appearing out of no where was such a surprise, their senses were overwhelmed, some of them stayed rooted in place, others moving to put objects between them and it, but none of them doing anything aggressive to it when crossed their line. They would all remain in that trance, until the shattering noise brought them back, the doors being destroyed and the man-machine moving through the opening it created.

Leonard had walked past the police and was surprised that he was not shot at, really happy actually, however as he approached the Cheesecake Factory door, he realized he had another problem. The size of the doors, while plenty big for, what Sheldon would say, a homunculus like him, were too small for the suit he was in, he didn't even think he could squeeze through them. He hesitated for only a fraction of a second, Penny coming quickly to mind, so he lifted his arms straight up, like battering ram, and charged the Cheesecake Factory doors.

JT was had just left his watch at the door, Pony was getting up to take his place, when JT decided the blonde's time had come. As he walked past her he grabbed her ponytail and yanked her up, getting a yelp from her and a scream from the little brunette, he had fun with earlier. JT got a little smile on his face, he was going to have a special time with this little blonde bitch, a real special time, his conceit made it even more surprising when the blonde tried to punch him in the groin, but missed and hit his inner thigh, it actually hurt. "Bitch!" JT came down on the side of Penny's head with the side of his pistol, while letting go of her hair, she fell immediately back to the floor, temporarily dazed.

Penny had watched him approach, but did not expect the pain when he grabbed her hair and pulled her up, it terrified her. She was scared already, so him dragging her away, made her loose all reason, she lashed out and tried to hit him where it would do the most good, her shocked and screaming mind operating on pure instinct. She never expected the steel that hit the side of her head, suddenly she was senseless, had no control of herself, she felt pain and she knew she was falling but there was nothing she could do, she was helpless.

JT was pissed he almost shot Penny right then, but then quickly thought 'the bitch is going to pay', which made him smile, he would really make her regret what she just did, regret it up to the point he killed her. He smiled, after he was done with her, she would wish she was dead and she soon would be, because she would be the first hostage killed, JT would see to that. JT even chuckled as he reached down to drag her up again, but he didn't make it, his ears were assaulted with a noise that sounded like a bomb going off.

The noise of the shattering doors drew all their attention, but the sight of the man-machine coming up behind all the glass and metal, made them gasp, all of them, criminals and hostages alike. Everyone just stared, just like the police, no one moved, it was a sight no one had expected and their brains were having a hard time processing what was happening, it was like a scene out of a movie. The criminals were just standing there, however the problem was, so was Leonard, he hadn't really thought any of this through, what was he suppose to do now. He came there to rescue Penny, not take on men with guns, without any kind of plan, so he just stood there too, looking at the three men with guns, his helmet rotating back and forth the only movement.

Pony had just started to walk towards the door so he was closest to Leonard when he came in, therefore the most surprised. However, after a few seconds of shock Pony reacted, he was the quickest, and he backed up to his barricade grabbing a waitress off the floor and putting her in front of him as a shield. JT saw Pony move, it broke the shock he was in and he cursed himself for being so slow, and now thought he better do something himself. JT went to his first response, when there was a difficult situation and he was afraid, he brought up his automatic rifle to point it at the thing, then mashed down the trigger. The 30 round magazine emptied in a couple seconds and JT stared at the thing, after his gun was empty, he hoped it was dead, but it was still standing looking at him. JT felt a chill run up his spine, it didn't even look like it felt the bullets.

Leonard felt the bullets hit the suit but they didn't penetrate and they didn't even hurt, they felt more like gentle nudges against the coveralls he was wearing inside it. He turned to see the shooter as he emptied his gun at Leonard, then throw it away, grabbing a handgun from his belt. Leonard took a couple of steps forward, the tables and junk put there to block a person, pushed away by the suit like they were nothing. Leonard was in the middle of it, but he still didn't really know what to do, he hadn't thought that part out, instead he started to look for Penny..

The gun did nothing, JT was really shaken, the man-machine moved closer and seemed unfazed by being shot, they could not hurt it and JT was getting more scared, he was loosing control. He tried to think, this thing had to be something the police sent in, so it was like a cop, it should act like a cop. Suddenly Pony's idea seemed really good to JT and he turned and grabbed up the girl close behind him, the blonde, putting his pistol to her head, then looked to verify, Breaker had seen him and done the same. He was now feeling the fear subside, he was in charge again, he knew the police and their man-machine would not risk these girls and if they needed some education, he would kill this one and take another to shield him. "Stop asshole, or I'll kill her." he yelled almost laughing.

JT didn't know but he had just done the most stupid thing of his life, because now Leonard's attention was locked on him and the gun he had to Penny's head. Leonard lost all reason, the girl he loved, more than life itself, had a gun pointed at her head and he was being told she was to die. Primal rage welled up in Leonard, his mind now occupied with only hate in it for the man in front of him and it was increasing with each second. JT stopped being a human being to Leonard, he was a treat, a threat to Penny's life, he had to be eliminated, fast. No one was hurting Penny, not while he was alive, and he now became one with the machine he was in. He even didn't think about it, the word spilling automatically from his mouth, "Targeting" And the eyepiece crosshairs came alive.

JT thought he was winning so he pushed his gun against Penny's ear, to prove his point, the machine had stopped and it's helmet was turned towards him. "I am going to kill her and then another one, and then another one, until you leave." JT was smiling again in false confidence, he never noticed the little turret on the things shoulder, the little turret that moved in precise synchronization with the helmet.

JT was 6 foot 1 inch, so he was over six inches taller than Penny and that was all the target Leonard needed. The eyepiece cross hairs centered between the man's eyes, Leonard's mind now the computer for the laser. "Laser Quick Charge"

"Countdown"

"Three…..Abort."

Leonard's whole mind concentrated on the crosshairs.

"Two….Abort."

The targeting system laser dot appeared on the man's forehead, right between his eyes. JT felt a sudden warm sensation on his forehead and was trying to understand why. His concentration temporary lost for what was happening, 'why was his forehead warm' he thought, his pressure on the pistol trigger slacking.

"One….Abort."

Leonard's mind, was locked on like his laser.

"Ready"

"Fire" Leonard's word leaving his mouth almost before the 'Ready', his mind in its own countdown.

The chemical reaction had reached its peak and the electrical energy it created, from all the electrons stripped by the chemical reaction, was directed to the power storage circuits of the laser over the three second charge. The capacitors now full, the computer now released that stored electrical energy, with Leonard's command, to the laser for it to produce the beam of collated light, with all its energy. To everyone in the room, what happened was the laser fired, a half centimeter beam that lasted less that a half second, the beam finally being stopped by the concrete back wall of the Cheesecake factory, but that is all it took. The beam went completely through JT's head, at an downward angle, destroy his brain in that half second. JT's brain didn't even know it was dead and the automatic parts of his body functioned for a second or two without his brain after the beam ended, the muscles completing their function to make the look of surprise in JT's eyes, before his body, now absent of control, slowly fell backward away from Penny, his gun never going off. Leonard just stared, at the most horrible thing he had ever seen in his life, there was no blood, the heat sealing everything, but he had killed a man.

Penny had tried to prepare to die after the gun was put to her head, but she didn't want to die, she wanted to be home in Leonard's arms where she was safe, she so didn't want to die. She had a horrible headache and tears had been falling down her face, it would happen at any time now and she wondered how bad it would hurt, she hoped it didn't hurt. Her mind was in such terror and she thought she would collapse any second, and then she saw something suddenly, like a flash, that reminded her of one of Leonard's lasers, he once had showed her in his lab. Slowly that feeling of the metal she felt at her ear went away and the man's arm that held her fell away, she heard the thud of something falling and suddenly everything was quiet, her terrified mind asking 'was she dead?'

Pony and Breaker had seen the flash of the beam, the black spot on JT's head and the lifeless body. The machine didn't move for a few seconds, then the helmet turned to Pony and he noticed the box turret on the shoulder turn towards him, too, the thing of death. Pony didn't want to die, he didn't kill anyone, that was JT, he was now terrified, so he dropped his gun, and let go of the girl. "Please don't kill me." He stepped back away from the girls and put his hands on top of his head.

Leonard turned his head to the other man, and saw him staring at him. Breaker saw JT die and saw Pony begging for his life, it was too much for him and he wet his pants. Breaker dropped his gun and released the girl, putting his hands together on top of his head, to beg the machine to spare his life.

Leonard now didn't know what to do, again, he was reacting to this all by his gut feeling, he had never thought of anything but rescuing Penny, not what would happen if they shot at him or surrendered. He stood there, confused and shaken, looking at each man in-turn, watching them cringe as he looked at each of them, the shoulder turret following his eyes. Finally, the power system drove him to action. "System Power at 50 percent." Leonard had to do something, so he walked over and grabbed the first one by the front of his bullet proof vest and lifted him up and then picked up the second one the same way. With both men in his hands he took second and looked at Penny, he had to check that she was unhurt.

He looked directly at her for almost 10 seconds, studying the woman he loved, trying to determine if she was okay, she was looking at him with doe eyes and he saw the blood from a small cut on the side of her head. He just wanted to throw the two men currently in his hands, rush over to pick her up and take her out there, the need to protect her was so great in him. But reason finally forced its way into his mind, she was not in danger now and she needed someone to look at her head immediately, the police would do that as soon as things were safe again. Leonard had to make things safe again, so he turned his mind back to the problem in front of him.

Penny slowly realized she was alive, something had changed, the thing in front of her was moving and she watched it first pick up one of the horrible men, then another. However he didn't come after the man with her, it just looked at her, it was staring at her, she felt it was looking deep into her soul. She couldn't explain how it felt, it staring at her, but suddenly she knew she was okay, everything was going to be okay. It finally turned and walked out the door and all Penny could think of was to follow it, it had saved her, it was unbelievable. She took a step then turned back, to see the cruel murderer that held her, his eyes were dead and she didn't care, she turned back to walk towards the door her hero had just left through.

It had taken a couple seconds, but then he knew what he had to do, Leonard had walked out of the Cheesecake factory to the street outside and put both men on the ground 20 feet in front of almost 50 police officers. The next few seconds seemed to last forever, everybody just stared at each other, the police looked at the two men and then at the Leonard in the suit, the two men stared at the police and the man-machine and Leonard just stood there waiting for the police to do something. It finally ended when the hostages started to come out of the broken doorway and one of the officers yelled.

The police moved in and grabbed the men, but then some of them pointed their guns at him in the suit and Leonard realized he needed to get out of there quick. "Thruster"

"Thruster armed…..abort"

Leonard hit the fire button in his glove and tried to position himself into the jump, hoping the gyros would work and the suit jumped. Almost 50 police officers watched the machine jump over 100 yards, over their line and past their cars, then watched it jump again out of sight. It was gone, into the dark, as fast as it was there, and each police officer looked at the one next to him, trying to understand what they had just seen.

Penny, stood outside the broken doorway, watching her hero, disappear into the night, with awe. The thing had saved her life, she was saved by a real life super hero, like in the guys comic books, this was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her. And before the thing left, it looked at her, it had actually looked at her, she couldn't believe it. But she was tired and her head hurt, so she just slid down the side of the building to sit on the concrete, it took a police women a couple seconds of shaking to break Penny out of her trance and she spent the next 4 hours in the hospital being treated for her head injury, while the police questioned her on what happened. She told them everything, but it was only a distraction, her mind was only concerned about the super hero that saved her, she now knew how Superman's Lois Lane felt.

Howard and Leonard never talked all the way back to Cal Tech, and they were in the storage room before they said a word. "Man that was close. You got back with only 25 percent power, Leonard. I have to do something about the power."

"Howard, I killed a man."

Howard stopped to look at his friend, he didn't really know what happened in there and he thought Leonard would just tell him when it was over. He never thought someone would die, it had never crossed his mind and he didn't know what to say to Leonard, so he changed the subject. "Let me get you out of the suit."

Leonard however couldn't get it out of his mind, he didn't know it but he was experiencing post combat mental trauma, just like a soldier. Riding back in the van all he had been thinking about was if Penny was going to be okay and the face of the man he killed. He felt horrible, he felt like he was a bad person, and now he looked at Howard, like he was Leonard's confessor. "I killed him with the laser, it just sliced through his head and he was dead. He was dead, just like that. It took less than a second, to kill a man. Howard, I killed a man."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Grief and Guilt

Due to her head injury, Penny was put into an ambulance and taken right to the hospital, for an examination and treatment, a police officer riding with her asking questions when the paramedics said it was okay. While in the emergency room, on a very uncomfortable exam table, Penny was bombarded with additional questions, including next-of-kind, to which she immediately told them Leonard and gave his phone number. The next 20 minutes involved blood being drawn and exams being done by a couple of doctors, one supposedly a neurosurgeon, before she was told by one of the doctors that she was very lucky and seemed to only have an bad impact bruise from being hit, no concussion. They were however going to completely check her out, so before she could leave she was scheduled for Electroencephalogram and a CAT scan.

Penny was resting for a few minutes from the prodding of the doctors when the woman came in with the clipboard, again. "Miss, we tried the number for the Leonard Hofstadter, you gave us, several times, and got no answer. Do you have another contact?"

The thought of 'Where can Leonard be?' crossed here mind, but then the recall of Bernadette's number, made Penny forget about Leonard and tell the nurse the information she needed. Bernadette and Amy showed up about 30 minutes after she gave the hospital staff Bernadette's number as a local next-of-kin, Leonard's phone was sitting on the work bench in university basement room, its ringing never heard, because Howard and Leonard were distracted trying to hurriedly safe and secure the suit. It was another ten minutes before Leonard picked up his phone and saw the missed calls, immediately dialing the last, Bernadette, the only one that was not from an unknown caller.

Leonard was a little frantic, the events of the last couple hours and his concern for Penny driving him crazy. "Bernadette, have you heard from Penny, do you know if she is okay, do you know where she is, have you heard what happened, please tell me you know something." he only stopped for a second to catch his breath.

Bernadette knew who it was by the voice and could hear the desperation in his voice, so she immediately jumped in before he started again. "Leonard, she is okay, calm down. I have seen her already and the doctors said she is fine."

"Where is she?" Bernadette told him and then got a curt 'thanks', then the phone went dead. Leonard immediately went to the door, a confused Howard watching his friend quickly leave. Howard barely got the lights off and the door locked, before seeing Leonard make a turn at the end of the corridor, to what Howard knew was the parking lot, Howard had to run to catch up.

Howard finally caught up with Leonard as he went out the door to the parking lot. "Leonard, I'm driving, you are not in any shape to drive."

Leonard looked at him to protest but then thought better. "Fine, County Hospital." Howard and Leonard didn't say another word to each other all the way there.

The girls were waiting outside the emergency room when a very upset Leonard and a concerned Howard arrived. Bernadette stood up and grabbed Leonard's hand to try and calm him down. "She is okay Leonard. I saw her a couple of times already, she is fine, they are just checking her to make sure she didn't have a concussion. It is just a precaution, they don't think she does, but they have to check. She had a Electroencephalogram, which they said was normal and now just went for a CAT scan."

Bernadette felt Leonard physically relax, which was good, so she let him go and went over to be hugged by her husband. She had been upset, like Leonard, at first, so she needed Howard to hold her to relieve some of her tension. Everybody just stood there for about a minute doing nothing, until Leonard finally was able to talk again.

"The head injury, is that all that happened to her?"

Bernadette stood back from Howard's arms, "Yes that is all the physical damage she has, but who knows what mental damage she will go through. I didn't talk to her much but she was shaken up a little by it, so knowing how tough Penny is, it has to have been pretty traumatic on her."

Leonard nodded, and thought to himself, 'At least he had done the right thing, by making the situation safe, so they could treat Penny. At least he did one thing right'. He kept going over everything in his mind, his basic conclusion being he had no idea what he was doing and he was lucky he didn't get her killed.

The friends had to wait another three hours before Penny was released, two of those hours were to allow for the police questioning her on what happened, as soon as the doctor ok'd it. It was past midnight when she was finally released from the hospital and police, her friends now allowed to take her home. Penny was being wheeled to her friends when Leonard saw her and got up immediately, going to her, to hug her. "Penny are you okay, I know you are hurt, how bad is it?"

"I got hit in the head Leonard, I'll be fine the doctor said, I was lucky, I just got a headache and a bad bruise, no concussion, I'm not really that hurt."

Leonard nodded, relief washing over him, "That God."

Penny nodded, then looked at her friends, "Thanks for being here guys."

Bernadette smiled at her friend, "No problem, ready to go home, I think you had enough adventure for one day." she said trying to lighten the mood.

Penny gave her a weak smile and nodded, going home sounded really good. "Yeah, home sounds great, let's go before the police want to question me again."

The trip home was uneventful, Amy drove and Bernadette rode shotgun, while Leonard sat in back with Penny, Raj rode in the other car with Howard. Penny still had a little headache so she leaned against the door and looked out of the window so she wouldn't get carsick. Leonard sat on the other side just watching her, the feeling he felt was indescribable, he was so relieved she was okay. Every movement she made warmed his heart, she was alive, he had thought she was going to die earlier that day and now seeing her with just a bandaged head bruise and a slight headache was like his greatest wish had been granted.

As Penny was staring out the window, she thought about the last couple of hours, especially the questions the police asked her. It really bothered her that they asked more questions about the thing that saved her than the animal that tried to kill her, they were obviously more interested in it. Penny had become more and more disturbed as she had to answer questions about it, she felt she was being traitor to the hero that saved her. Penny then did something she never had done before, she lied to the police, as the questioning progressed she told them more and more she couldn't remember stuff, which she knew upset them. A doctor standing by, finally cut the interview off, saying memory loss was common with head injuries and she needed to rest, so the interview was over.

Penny was relieved when they pulled into the apartment parking lot and felt even better when she settled into her couch, as soon as she got in her apartment. The comfort of familiar surroundings made her relax, the first time since everything had happened. The only problem was now everyone was in her small apartment and she felt it was stifling, Sheldon had even been brought over by Amy after they got back. Penny knew they all loved her but she didn't need all this loving right now, she preferred not to have so much company at the moment. There was this underlining anger right now in her too, she knew they wanted to know what happened to her and she really didn't care, they would not understand how she felt, no matter how she told them. But they were her friends so she would humor them for a little while, then she figured she could tell them she was tired to get them to leave.

"Penny do you need anything?" Leonard asked her to help her and give himself something to do, so he didn't think too much.

"Some water would be nice, and I think I can take another headache pill again." She watched him go to her refrigerator, shake his head and then head out the door to his.

"Penny, thank God you were not hurt badly and no one was killed." Amy was trying to be sympathetic, but Penny didn't see it.

"No, thank whoever was in that machine that saved us all." Penny said curtly. "And someone was killed, one of the monsters that held us." Bernadette, Amy, Raj and Sheldon looked at her in shock. Howard looked at Leonard, who was now standing in the doorway, with several water bottles in his hands, frozen in spot, a combination of shock and grief over his face.

"What machine?" Bernadette and Amy looked at her puzzled.

Penny couldn't help but feeling that talking about it was personal, but she knew they would bug her till she told them something, "It is hard to describe, the thing looked like a robot, but you could sense there was a man in it. It came through the front door like a avenging angel and rescued us all. It killed one of the crooks that shot at it and then had the other two begging for mercy as it picked them up and dropped them in front of the police…But before it left, it looked at me."

Howard was still watching Leonard, finally getting up and taking the water bottles from him, putting one in front of Penny and the rest in the refrigerator. Leonard seemed frozen in the doorway, a far off look in his eyes, Howard thought he knew what was happening, he was remembering everything that happened as Penny described it.

"What do you mean, 'It looked at me'." Amy was looking at Penny is disbelief.

"The one crook had a gun to my head." Both girls gasped, "And it killed him with, I think using a laser, then after it picked up the other two crooks, it suddenly stopped to look right at me, me, it just stood there looking at me! I swear it was like whatever it was wanted to say something to me." Penny was just staring off, her mind trying to picture it as it looked at her.

"Was it something the police used to save you?" Bernadette wanted to know more.

Penny gave her head a little shake, someone had said something to her, but she didn't know what. She looked at the girls, "I'm sorry, what?"

Amy repeated Bernadette's question. "Could it be something the police used to save you?"

"No, the police pulled their guns on it and then this thing jumped over them into the darkness and was gone."

Amy honestly thought Penny had not seen things as they really were, due to stress and being hit in the head, "Penny people under extreme stress see things when they are scared, do you think maybe you mistakenly saw police in protective suits and made them seem like this thing you thought you saw."

Penny was now a little aggravated at her friend, she wasn't there, she couldn't understand, that was why she didn't want to discuss this with them in the first place, "Believe me Amy, this was no dream or hallucination, this thing burst through the door and saved us and the police didn't have any idea what it was either."

Penny didn't want to discuss this with them anymore, she was actually slowly starting to feel tired and so she asked if everyone would let her get some rest, she never noticed that Leonard had left a couple minutes before she finished, and went to his room to lie down. Penny's story had brought everything back to Leonard in vivid detail and made him physically sick, he just had to escape. It turned out to not be such a good idea, because as soon as he closed his eyes, the wide dead eyes, of the man he killed, entered his mind and the picture of his dead body falling to the floor occupied his thoughts.

The girls had decided they were going to stay with Penny and she got to bed a little before 2 AM, she had been running on adrenaline since the ordeal started and it finally ran out, taking all her energy with it. The girls didn't get up till noon, however now Penny didn't want to talk anymore, the adrenaline had worn off and the mental pain of the event had now set in. The girls tried to talk to her again about her ordeal, but it just made her mad inside and them watching the news shows, to get more information, just made her relive it in her mind. There was even some footage, from one of the channels of the machine coming out of the Cheesecake Factory with the criminals, then jumping away, and Bernadette and Amy gasped when they saw the thing and looked at Penny in awe. Penny couldn't help the feeling she was actually getting sick of their company, they still lived in their perfect little world, they had never experience the horror she did, they could never understand. Penny wanted to yell at them, but she decided it wouldn't be right, they were her friends and only wanted to help, so she went over and got the wine bottle, she just wanted to be numb, after all it would probably help the pain of the bump on her head and she had some great headache medicine for tomorrow's hangover.

Leonard had tossed and turned all Friday night, only sleeping for short periods of about an hour before he would wake up again. Leonard had no one to talk to, Howard was the only one who knew what they did, and he went home that night. Everything was bottled up in him and it was eating at him, he had killed a man, and the remorse of it was killing him. Saturday, Leonard laid in bed till almost 2 PM and would have stayed there longer, until Sheldon started to whine to him, about wanting to go to the comic book store. Leonard told him his car was still at Cal Tech, so he couldn't drive and was rewarded by a 15 minute tirade on how he wasn't living up to the roommate agreement. Raj came an hour later, to take Sheldon, so Leonard left afterwards to walk in the nearby park, just to be alone.

The wine was having its effect, Penny would drift off thinking about events of the last 24 hours, and Amy and Bernadette would try to get her attention back to something else, they wanted to keep her from getting sad. Amy especially knew of post stress problems from such ordeals and wanted to be close in case her bestie needed her. There was also a call from the Cheesecake Factory Home Office, to her next-of-kin on the hospital paperwork, Bernadette, to notify Penny of consoling. The girls setting up an appointment for Penny, with the counselor on Monday, to make sure their friend would be taken care of. Amy was so persistence, Penny, who really didn't want to see a counselor, finally relented and let them make the appointment, to get Amy off her back. By evening there were a couple of open wine bottles and the girls were busy the rest of the evening trying to keep Penny from getting completely full blown drunk, till she finally fell asleep half drunk that night.

Sunday Penny was partially hung over, she had felt much worse before, when she got drunk, but she was still miserable and just wanted the girls to go away. Penny's goal for the day was to be alone, get over being hung over, the headache pills helping a lot. She finally convinced the girls to leave, a little after lunch time, she couldn't stand having them around anymore, she wanted to scream and tell them to leave, but she somehow controlled herself and they finally left. Now she tried to get her stomach back to the point, where she could eat again, she hoped she would feel hungry then. Penny didn't have the energy to do anything, she just sat in her quiet apartment thinking about her ordeal over and over until her apartment started to get dark from the evening light going away. She still was sitting on her couch when the soft knocks on her door broke her out of her trance.

Leonard had no one, he spent most of his weekend in his room, except for a short walks to the park on Saturday and Sunday to try and think things out. He hardly slept much the two nights before, nightmares of his killing of the man, who had Penny, running over and over in his head, even as he dreamed. However, the most horrible nightmare, he had, was of him not using the laser and the same man pulling the trigger, killing Penny, he woke up in a cold sweat after that one, screaming her name. It took him a half hour to convince Sheldon he was okay, so Sheldon would go back to sleep.

He was laying on his bed, when he heard Amy come into the apartment, to tell Sheldon she was going home and that Penny wanted to spend the night by herself. After Amy left, Leonard just laid there thinking about Penny and her ordeal, he had seen the terror on her face when that man held the gun to her head. Leonard was an emotional wreck, but he still was worried about Penny, she always came first to him, he was hardwired that way ever since the day he realized he loved her. It had started to get dark when he finally got the well being to see her, so he waited till he heard Sheldon go in his room and close the door, before he slipped out of the apartment to check on her.

Penny looked at the door, not registering that someone wanted to see her, till she heard the second set of knocks. The door was locked, she had locked it after the girls left, she didn't know if she would ever leave it unlocked again, the thought of a stranger walking in terrified her. The third set of knocks finally made her get up and look out the peephole, it was Leonard, she knew she needed to let him in, he was her boyfriend, so she should let him in and only that made her unlock the door to open it. Penny opened the door and then turned to walk back to the couch, sitting in the same spot she had been in moments before, only this time she was watching Leonard, who hadn't moved from the doorway.

"Penny, I just wanted to see if everything is okay and…..Are you okay?"

Penny stared at him, 'No Leonard it is not okay and I am not okay.' she wanted to say but her mind knew he just didn't understand, none of them did, so instead she lied. "I'm getting over it, it will just take a little time. I'm sort of tired now Leonard and I want to get some sleep. I'll talk to you later okay." She kept thinking, 'Please leave Leonard, I don't want to talk about it, Please leave.' her mind tried to will him to leave.

Leonard knew Penny quite well and he knew she didn't want to talk, her face and physical posturing made that very evident to him. She was always so strong emotionally, much more than him, he didn't really know how he could help her anyway, he would probably just screw things up, so he decided he better leave. "Okay, if you say so, just remember I'm across the hall if you need anything."

"Okay, thanks, goodnight Leonard."

"Goodnight."

Leonard turned and walked back to his apartment as Penny got up to lock the door again, Leonard had never actually entered her apartment, he had stayed at her threshold the whole time talking with her. She actually watched him go to his apartment, through the peephole, with a little bit of sadness, she felt bad for rejecting him and even worse because she knew he knew. She finally resigned herself that there was nothing she could do, and she now did feel tired, the emotional energy lost by interacting with Leonard finally doing her in, so she headed to her bedroom.

Leonard never went into the apartment, just opened the door and got his keys from the key bowl near the door. He needed fresh air, so he grabbed his car keys and walked down the stairs then out into the night. He knew it would take a couple of hours for him to walk to Cal Tech to get his car, but he didn't care, he just wanted use up all the energy in his body and think, hoping maybe he would be able to sleep tonight if he did that.

Penny laid in her bed, she had been in bed over a hour and she couldn't sleep, she felt so alone with no one now in her apartment with her, her bed seemed so cold and alien to her. Laying there, she didn't know if she would ever be able to get warm and couldn't help the feelings that were welling up in her, she thought of Leonard standing in her doorway again and how good it felt when Leonard held her. She then looked at her nightstand near her bed, she usually had her phone there, but it was still in her Cheesecake Factory locker. She knew Leonard would come right over, if she called him, she did want to sleep wrapped in his arms, but she thought it was probably better she didn't have her phone, now. There was no way she could guarantee that Leonard would come, not say a word or ask a question, and just crawl in bed to be with her, that was not how Leonard worked. He would try to talk to her and comfort her and she knew she would get mad, scream at him, then throw him out. She didn't want to do that, she didn't want yell at him, so she pulled the covers closer and tried to will herself asleep.

Another hour later she was still awake and miserable, she couldn't keep her mind from bouncing back to Leonard and how when she was with him in his bed, she was never cold or alone. She wanted to be with him even more now, so she rationalized if she went over and got in bed with him, maybe he wouldn't wake up or if he did he wouldn't ask her anything, just let her sleep with him. She convinced herself that would happen, so she got up, put her robe on and grabbed the guy's key as she left her apartment. She kept thinking about him warm in bed and how she just wanted to cuddle up to him, to feel his warmth and feel safe again, those thoughts driving her on while she tip-toed to his room. Therefore it was a great shock to her when she entered his room to find a messy bed and no Leonard, the energy seemed to drain out of her. She felt completely hopeless, sulking back to her apartment and crawling into her unwelcoming bed, trying the best she could to get warm again.

Leonard sat in his car at an all night takeout place, drinking coffee, trying not to think. He was tired from his walk, but didn't want to go home, he really didn't know what he wanted to do. Knowing Penny was okay in her apartment, just let Leonard's mind focus on other things, those things being that he killed a man. He knew he would do it again to save Penny, but that didn't make it any better, he still had killed a man and dealing with it was one of the hardest things he ever did in his life.

Penny's mind finally drifted from how uncomfortable she was, without Leonard, to what had happened to her, just 48 hours before. She felt guilty, that the redhead girl was raped, that second time, it was suppose to be her and she couldn't help but feel responsible. She felt helpless that she could do nothing to prevent that animal from doing what he wanted to her and the other girls. And she felt scared to her very core, that her very life was so fragile and could be taken from her at any moment, when he put the gun to her head. She also didn't know if she would ever be able to get the feel of the steel barrel, of his gun against the side of her head, out of her mind. She couldn't help think, that she was suppose to die that day, it was her time and only the miracle of that thing, saved her. She laid in bed, her mind going over it again and again until she had no energy to do anything anymore, her mind slowly shutting down, finally letting her sleep.

Penny's nightmare came Monday morning about 5 AM, she had finally fell into a deep sleep, when it came to her in a dream. It was really a simple nightmare, she dreamed that when than man came up to her, instead of grabbing the redhead, he grabbed her, then raped her, the feeling on his hands on her so real, it made her wake up in a cold sweat, having trouble breathing. However, what scared Penny worse, was because of instinct or her deep sense of security with him, she immediately reached out for Leonard and he wasn't there. At first she panicked not knowing why he wasn't there, until her mind finally fully became functional again and she realized that they were not sleeping together, so he shouldn't be there. Penny didn't go back to sleep that night, she got up and watched TV all morning, until she had to go see the counselor, relieved the girls made her make an early appointment.


	7. Chapter 7

**AGAIN, THIS STORY IS INSPIRED BY THE DALE BROWN BOOK "TIN MAN" HOWEVER EXCEPT FOR THE CONCEPT AND REFERENCES TO SOME TBBT EPISODES, THE STORY IS MINE. I AM BORROWING THE CHARACTERS FROM THE BIG BANG THEORY AS MY PLAYERS, BECAUSE FOR THE STORY TO BE A LITTLE BIT BELIEVABLE I NEED THEIR GENIUS. SO THE CONCEPT IS OWNED BY DALE BROWN AND THE CHARACTERS ARE OWNED BY THE CREATORS OF THE BIG BANG THEORY. **

**DURING THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS THE STORY WILL NOW DEVIATE FROM THE SHOW AND TAKE ITS OWN PATH, SO EPISODE 6.08 NEVER HAPPENS. THE SCENE WITH PENNY TELLING LEONARD SHE LOVES HIM, IN THE HALLWAY BETWEEN THE APARTMENTS, THEREFORE NEVER HAPPENS. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE REST OF THE STORY. REVIEWS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME.**

Chapter 7 - Penny's Recovery Begins

Monday Leonard took Sheldon to work, he never said a word and even Sheldon could tell Leonard did not want to talk, his futile attempts to get him to talk resulting in complete silence from Leonard. Leonard's only true conversation with him was after they parked, when he told Sheldon he had to find his own way home, because he was working late, leaving a stunned Sheldon standing at the car. Sheldon, Howard and Raj never saw Leonard for lunch and did not see him at all that day, Howard was worried.

Penny was early to the consoler, she really didn't know what to expect and deep down didn't want to talk to anyone, but the nightmare had shook her up, still remaining in her mind, and it had drove her to come anyway. Dr Beth Ryan had been looking for the third girl all morning, she knew about the young 18 year old rape victim and the older redhead victim, because they were admitted to the hospital after the ordeal, but the identity of the blonde victim, was sketchy until she talked to Penny. The consoler knew, from talking to the other girls, that Penny was almost raped and would have been next, so she would have emotional scars. Also, Penny was the only girl to have a gun put to her head and was almost killed. However, as the session progressed, Penny would not talk, she closed off when the consoler tried to get her to open up. It wasn't till she asked Penny about bad dreams that Penny eyes showed Beth she struck a nerve. Beth used that to get Penny to talk a little and even though they didn't talk long, she could tell Penny was having problems. There was some optimism though, Beth got Penny to agree to come to the group session with all the girls on Wednesday, so she hoped Penny would open up more then.

Penny met Cheryl when she left the office, Cheryl was next to see the consoler, but after talking a few minutes, they agreed to see each other that night for dinner. Penny then ended up wandering around the mall, not really shopping, just walking and thinking before she had to go home to change for dinner. She took her time getting dressed, she couldn't seem to do anything fast right now and after she got ready, she went to meet Cheryl at a cheap chain restaurant for dinner. They didn't really talk that much, but after dinner Penny easily convinced Cheryl to get some drinks with her, so they went to a bar Penny knew. Cheryl was amazed how fast Penny got drunk, she took every free drink any man offered, and after she was drunk she danced with them all, but then there came a point where Penny wasn't in control of her own mind and Cheryl finally dragged her out.

That night, Sheldon woke Leonard up, complaining about all the noise Penny was making, so Leonard put his robe on and looked out the peep hole of the door to see what the commotion was with Penny. What he saw was poor Cheryl, trying to get a crazy drunk Penny into her apartment and no matter how much he tried to resist, he knew he had to help. Leonard reluctantly opened his apartment door, "Hey Cheryl, she is pretty bad tonight."

"Hi Leonard, yeah she tied one on, could you help me?" Cheryl knew Leonard was Penny's boyfriend again, Penny had always talked about him, but lately she had talked about him a lot more and said they were dating.

"Yeah, I have her key here." Leonard grabbed Penny's spare key from the bowl and walked over to open Penny's door, then he helped Cheryl carry Penny into the apartment.

"You guys are really good friends. I love you guys. How come there are four of you carrying me? I love you guys." Penny rambled on, not knowing what she was saying.

"Let's get her in her bed. Could you get her out of the dress and into her pajamas?" Leonard looked at Cheryl for a reply.

"Don't you want to do that?" Cheryl knew Penny had slept with Leonard before, she was confused why he didn't want to get her ready for bed. She also knew Penny trusted Leonard and would not be upset if he did it, because he had done it before.

"No, you better do it, we are really not at that point in our present relationship." Leonard wanted to just get her to bed and get out of there, he had to keep away from her, he didn't want her associated with what he had done, when it came crashing down on him. He helped Cheryl get her on the bed then got her pajamas for Cheryl. "I'll get some water and some aspirin for her for tomorrow." Leonard then left the apartment to go to his for the water and aspirin.

"Come on Penny." Cheryl tugged Penny's dress off and then her underwear so she could get the pajamas on.

"I love you guys."

"Yeah, I know."

"Do you know a super hero saved me. I'm Lois Lane and a superman saved me."

Cheryl stared at her, the ordeal passing through her mind, she was with the girls that the other criminal had. That guy was younger and didn't threaten to kill or didn't rape anyone, not like the guy that held Penny and those other girls. Cheryl could still see the thing that killed the man, that was going to kill Penny, it was like a super hero and it did save her. "Honey, you are okay now." Cheryl finished putting Penny's pajamas on.

"Why won't superman sleep with me, I love him, you know. Doesn't he love me?"

Leonard walked in as Penny made her last statement and stared at her, unable to move and thought 'I love you too, more than anything', then he sighed and put the bottle of water and two aspirins on her nightstand. He looked at Cheryl who was staring at him.

"Ah, I have to leave Leonard." Cheryl saw his eyes and knew there was a problem, but she couldn't even imagine what it was.

"Okay, do you need a ride?"

"No, I'll get a cab, I'll be okay." Cheryl then got up and walked out as she called the cab company on her phone.

Leonard had a few more bottles of water for Penny, plus a TV dinner that Penny liked. He knew when she was hung over and finally felt like eating she would only make TV dinners because they took the least effort. Leonard put the covers over her and went to her kitchen to put everything in the fridge, then he stood there, he needed to leave, but he was worried about her.

He didn't have much time to think, because suddenly he heard from the bedroom, "I feel sick."

Leonard hurried to her room and helped her to the bathroom, then spent the next two hours over the toilet with her. He held her hair as she threw up over and over, she was really sick this time. Finally she stopped and he got a little water down her and then she fell into a deep sleep. He felt she wouldn't wake up for a while, but he couldn't leave her, so he went to her couch and just sat there, until he found himself waking up in the same spot the next morning, as the sun showed through her apartment windows.

Leonard stood in her bedroom doorway just looking at her for 20 minutes, he had a sickening feeling this might be the last time he was so close to her and he was having trouble just breathing. He had thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world, the first time he saw her, and then after knowing her, fell in love with her, he loved her unconditionally. Technically he was still her boyfriend, but really that was over because he had to protect her, this was it, this was the end of their relationship and he felt like something was dying inside him. He finally sighed and shook his head, she would be okay, hung over but okay, and he needed her not to see him, so he decided to leave, going back to his apartment to get ready for work.

-TIN MAN-

Penny woke up about 10 AM feeling terrible, she couldn't remember ever feeling this bad, everything hurt, even her hair. She pulled herself to the edge of the bed, she had to find the strength to get water and aspirin, she didn't even know if she had aspirin, but as she got near the edge she saw the bottle. Slowing she reached up for it and then she felt the pills, which she grabbed too, through blurry eyes she saw they were aspirin, so she took them and then drank half the bottle of water. She sealed the bottle back up then holding it fell back to sleep for five more hours.

Leonard sat in his lab, just sitting and staring at his laser equipment, he couldn't bring himself to do anything. What was nice about his lab was he could put up 'Laser in Use' signs and lock the door, so no one would bother him. He felt guilty just sitting there, after all they were paying him to be doing something, but he couldn't get his brain to think about work. He was startled when he heard the knocks on the door and surprised when he saw who it was. "What do you want Howard?"

"Hey Buddy, how are you doing?" Howard felt so uncomfortable when he saw him, Leonard's eyes just reflected pain.

"Howard, I don't want to talk about it."

"Leonard everything is going to be okay."

"No Howard it is not. The police will find about the suit and they will arrest the killer. You need to stay away from me."

"Leonard, I am just as responsible as you."

"No Howard, you are not. You weren't there, you had no idea what I was doing. Howard they are going to find out after Hogan comes back and I tell him about the material, and they will see the suit fits me. If you are not around me they will never associate you with it."

"Leonard…."

"Damm it Howard, you have Bernadette to think about."

"You have Penny."

"No Howard, Penny doesn't love me, she can't tell me she does, because she doesn't. She will easily find someone else. I don't have Penny. But you are responsible for and to Bernadette. I won't be responsible for ruining that. So leave Howard."

"Leonard, you can't…."

"Howard leave, leave now. Why won't you listen to me. You know I am right. Will you think about Bernadette, and what this would do to her!"

Howard just stood there staring at him, he was right he couldn't hurt Bernadette.

"Leave Howard."

Howard didn't know what to say.

"Leave!"

Howard couldn't move, he couldn't just leave him, but Leonard gabbed his shoulders and pushed him out the door. Leonard locked it after him, sitting then back in his chair, thinking about Penny, he couldn't stop the few tears that fell from his eyes, he felt so alone. Howard stood in the hallway for a while, he didn't know how long, he just felt like a coward and for the life of him, he didn't know how fix things.

Penny woke up again after 3 PM, her head still hurt, but not as much as before, and she couldn't at first understand why she had a bottle in her hand. Finally her mind came around and she realized it had been on the nightstand this morning, so she opened in up and poured it down her sandpaper feeling throat. She started to get up, but fell back down dizzy, so she just laid there for about a half hour before she slowing tried it again. She need more aspirin and water, so she stumbled out of her bedroom, into the living room, looking at the kitchen and saw the aspirin bottle on her kitchen counter. It took her a little bit to get there, but she finally got the aspirin bottle and took two out, she now hoped she had some water. She attempted to smile when she saw six bottles of water in her fridge, at least she was having some luck this afternoon. She made it to the couch, took her aspirin, then drank some water, laying her head down, she fell asleep a few moments later.

Leonard stayed at work till 9 PM, basically doing nothing, he just didn't want to go from one empty office to another empty bedroom, until he was ready and most of all he didn't want to see anyone. As he drove home, he hoped Sheldon was asleep, the thought of having to talk to him in anyway upset him to no end. He actually felt something like a good feeling, when he walked in the apartment and found the lights all off.

Penny woke up a little after 9 PM, she was actually starting to feel like a human being again, a human being in pain. She still had a low level headache, so she immediately popped two more aspirins and drank more water. She laid on her couch and turned the TV on low, just trying to get back to normal and by 11 PM she was succeeding, even feeling a little hungry too. However Penny didn't remember if she had food, she hadn't really paid attention all weekend and she never seemed to have any when she needed it. She slowly walked to the fridge and opened it up and found nothing, so she opened up the freezer and a small smile formed on her lips, she had a TV dinner. She was picking at her food 20 minutes later, she was only a little bit hungry, but the TV dinner was her favorite, so she ate it all. Penny was back in bed by a little after midnight, with a full belly, she fell dead asleep in minutes.

-TIN MAN-

Penny got up at 10 AM the next morning, at least the headache was gone and she wasn't dizzy when she stood up. She still felt a little wore out, but she felt human again. She had a group counseling session at 1 PM, so she figured if she started now, she could get there in time, and she willed herself out of bed and to the bathroom to get ready. When she got there, she was surprised to see almost all the girls at the group session from that night, even the redhead, who she knew was named, Vicky. The group session wasn't too bad, she really didn't have to talk much or do much, and after a couple of hours, she was ready to go.

Dr Ryan had watched Penny during the whole session, Penny was going to be her hardest nut to crack, so as soon as the session was over, she went over to talk to her. "Penny can you help me with something?"

Penny looked at Beth and suspected something. "Why….What?"

"Penny, I'm having problems with Erin and I need your help."

"Who is Erin?"

"She is the girl you held that night."

Penny swallowed, she didn't know her name was Erin and it actually made her feel bad because she really didn't want to see her. So Penny felt ashamed, about that and uncomfortable, the thought of seeing Erin scared Penny. "I don't know." her voice was so soft Beth almost didn't hear Penny.

"Penny, she has asked for you. It would really help her if you could see her." Beth saw the conflict in Penny, she seemed not able to move, she needed to be lead, so Beth gently took her arm and lead her out to see Erin, Penny never resisted.

Penny rode silently to the hospital with Beth, she couldn't say anything, she felt at a loss for words. Penny blindly followed Beth to Erin's room and when she walked in she almost fainted, seeing Erin made everything come back to her. Erin saw Penny too, and both of them had tears forming in their eyes, as Penny moved towards Erin's bed, then took Erin into her arms. Beth watched both girls sobbed their hearts out, they were both letting out some of the grief bottled up inside of them, it made Beth feel good inside, they were both taking a step to healing.

Leonard actually got a little work done that Wednesday, but it was busy work, his mind would not think deeply about anything but last Friday. It was eating him up, his stomach started to feel bad regularly and he was thinking about getting some stomach medicine on the way home. He found he didn't want to eat much anymore either, but he really didn't care, the worse that could happen was he would die and he felt sort of dead already.

-TIN MAN-

Penny spent all afternoon Thursday with Erin, talking, crying, and sometimes laughing. Dr Ryan stopped by, late afternoon, and was amazed how much better they both were, Erin was telling Penny about her home and high school and Penny was telling Erin about hers. They had become close, they had shared almost the same horror and they were feeling better in each other's company. Penny and Erin even walked down the cafeteria and had dinner together, it was the first time Erin had left her room.

Leonard's Thursday and Friday were just like Wednesday, he worked a little, kept away from everyone and felt terribly alone. Leonard was not getting any better, he just had accepted that he was doomed and had given up hope. Howard had tried to see him again, but Leonard drove him off again, Leonard had gotten so mad at him, he even threatened to hit him, before Howard finally agreed to leave.

-TIN MAN-

Howard also had a busy week, after his confrontation with Leonard, he decided he had to do something, in his mind this couldn't go on, Leonard seemed to be getting worse, instead of better. So Howard came in early the next day and put in the micro video cameras, with transmitters. He put one in Leonard's office and one in his lab, Howard was terrified that his friend would do something extreme, so he also decided her would stay at work each night till after Leonard left. After the first boring night, watching Leonard from his office, Howard started doing the monitoring from the room they had the suit hidden. Howard would watch Leonard as he worked on the suit, it made the time go faster, when he worked and he couldn't help that he liked to tinker with things.

The first thing he noticed was the damage to the suit, specifically the exoskeleton, Leonard had damaged the leg bars to the exoskeleton when he jumped and they needed to be replaced. Howard ran some quick static equations then performed a dynamic analysis and soon found that spring steel was a better choice, so he got some spring steel bars from material storage at the mechanical engineering department, for the suit. The steel however, brought up another problem, the weight would increase and now he worried about the servos, they needed to be of higher rating to handle the greater weight, so he got new servos. Howard now thought about what Leonard said, that bothered him, he wasn't there and he didn't know what Leonard did, so Howard put in a camera that linked with the two way communication in the suit, so if it was ever used again, he would see and hear what Leonard did, instead of being isolated from him like before. Finally Howard decided to put in a non lethal weapon system he had been working with the Army on, to impress them. The little project he had been working for the Army, was a weapon called dazzlers, and he had a lot of the equipment left from his work. Dazzlers were extremely high intensity lights that seemed like little suns when they lit up, their effect on human eyes was instantaneous. The Army wanted them for temporarily blinding the enemy, they were non lethal, effective and could be powered by the laser energy packs, Howard thought the Army would like those in the suit too.

-TIN MAN-

Friday morning Penny packed her bag and went to the parking lot of the Cheesecake Factory to catch the bus, to go to a beach spa, with all the other girls that were involved in the hostage situation. It was the last couple days of the planned therapy treatment for them, they were all going to a beach spa to be pampered and relaxed, while attending a few short therapy sessions while there. Penny was feeling better and needed to just mindlessly relax, plus Erin had agreed to go and Penny thought it would be nice to spend the weekend with her. Vicky was there too and the three of them spent the most of their time together, being able to talk to someone who knew exactly what you went through helped each one of them heal.

Leonard again spent most of the weekend in his room, staying in bed 16 hours from Friday night to Saturday, his depression only worse. The only good thing about the weekend was Sheldon, went to conference with Amy that weekend, leaving Saturday morning and he would not be returning till Sunday evening. If Leonard timed everything right, he would never see him this weekend. Leonard never realized that like his work, Howard had hid a camera in his room and his living room to watch Leonard on the weekend too.

-TIN MAN-

Sunday afternoon Penny got off the bus and hugged Vicky and Erin, she couldn't believe how much better she felt. It was like a load had been taken off her shoulders and she could live again. She had just got back in her car when her phone rang and she saw it was from Bernadette and for the first time in a week she was happy her friend had called. "Hi Sweetie what's up."

"Penny, I haven't seen you all week, are you alright?"

Penny smiled. "Yeah, I feel better."

"Do you want to come over for dinner?"

That really sounded nice to Penny. "Yeah, what time?"

"About 6 PM."

"Great, see you then." Penny hung up, then started her car, turned on the radio and sang to the music as she drove happily home to get ready to see her friend.

Bernadette was surprised on how back to normal Penny seemed when she came over for dinner, she even didn't resist talking about things. Penny explained what she went through over the last week, meeting Vicky and Erin, and how everything was getting better with her again. However, there was one thing that bothered Bernadette a little, now that Penny was not dwelling on what happened to her, she seemed a little obsessed about her strange savior. She talked again about how it saved her, how it stopped to look at her and she seemed to have some type of desire for it. This whole thing was a little worrying to Bernadette, because the one person she never talked about was Leonard, he seemed to not exist to her, right now. Bernadette had not seen Leonard all week too, and when she had asked Howard about Leonard and Penny, her husband didn't seem to know anything about his close friend. Bernadette hoped there was nothing wrong, that this was all a phase between them, but she couldn't suppress the little bit of doubt that there was something wrong between them. Anyway, Penny seemed to be getting better, almost happy, so Bernadette accepted that and had a pleasant evening with her, she thought maybe things would get better with her and Leonard too.

Leonard was laying in bed, when he heard Sheldon come home for the weekend, to the apartment. Leonard had turned off all the lights and made it seem like he was asleep, hoping Sheldon would not bother him. He felt relieved, to hear Sheldon's bathroom routine and then the closing of his door as he went to sleep, Leonard would not have to talk to him tonight. Sunday had been a day of reflection for Leonard, he accepted that there was nothing he could do about his situation and basically had given up hope, he was just going to acknowledge his fate. They were going to catch him and he would be locked up for killing a man, so the only thing he could do was make sure no one else went down with him, especially Penny and Howard. He felt a little at peace now, he would just keep his distance from his friends and go on and work until the day they came to take him away. He still had to get his work written up for Dr Hogan, when he came back, so when he went in tomorrow, he would try and get that finished up, before they arrested him.

Penny returned to work on Monday, a little over a week after the incident, when the Cheesecake Factory reopened. That day was hell, everyone thought that it would be slow, because they had been closed so long, but instead it seemed everyone wanted to eat at the place, where the hostage incident occurred. Penny ended up coming in the morning and staying to closing, the manager begging the girls to stay, and when she went home she was exhausted. She got into bed quickly that night and was very tired, but it took her a few minutes to fall asleep, because she just couldn't seem to get comfortable, nevertheless her exhaustion soon won out letting her sleep.

-TIN MAN-

The rest of the week was just as busy, but the manager had recovered after Monday and had extra girls on shifts. Erin, the 18 year old waitress never came back to work, Penny heard she still had treatment to undergo for a while, but Vicky the redhead, was back and worked all week with Penny. The days were tiring but the tips were great, especially when people asked and she admitted to them she was one of the hostages, one group giving her a tip of $100, for just 7 people. The first time someone asked her about her ordeal, she felt a little upset, but after a while she could tell most people were interested and sympathetic, so she just got use to saying the same story over and over, leaving out the really bad parts. Another, thing nice that happened was that her and the other girls held hostage were notified they would get a cash settlement from the company for their suffering and Penny was happy to get any extra money she could.

That week Penny also hung out with Bernadette and Amy in the evening a couple nights, however she couldn't seem to get her mind off her hero no matter where or who she was with. Penny even went to game night on Tuesday, to talk to the guys about super heroes, she craved more information. She did notice Leonard not being around, however her fixation on the mechanical man over road her pursuing his whereabouts. "Sheldon, is there a super hero like that mechanical man that saved us all at the Cheesecake Factory?"

"Surprising you should ask." Sheldon was actually smiling, "We were discussing this before you came. I think Ironman is very close to this mystery hero, but Howard insists that it is something new, a more common man type hero."

Penny looked at Howard, "What do you mean? Common man hero?"

Howard, knew he should have never even gotten into this conversation , with Sheldon, in the first place, 'Crap', he thought, now he had to lie his way out of this. "Ironman was built by a rich extreme genius, Tony Stark. I think that maybe someone just built this thing and went out to prevent people from being hurt."

Sheldon snorted, "Howard, it is no wonder you don't have a PHD, only a person with, genius type mind, like mine, could have ever built something like that. He is probably a theoretical Physicist or something like that, who thought about it one afternoon, then built it."

"Then you're saying, you could build something like that, in your spare time." Howard looked at him in disbelief, thinking 'Arrogant Asshole'.

"If I had the time to waste on such trivial matters."

Penny looked at Sheldon confused, "You are always reading super hero comics, wouldn't you love to be a super hero, so if you could build it, why wouldn't you build it?"

Howard smiled at Penny, "Yeah, Sheldon, why wouldn't you build one."

"Because, then I would have to help people, I don't have time for that."

The conversation went on for another hour, until Penny got tired, because nothing new was being said. She left to go back to her apartment, and when she opened her door, she stopped, finally realizing Leonard hadn't been there the whole time and wondered where he was. It occupied her mind for a second or two, until she decided he probably just didn't want to be around Sheldon that night and that is why he was gone. After all, she just spent over an hour around Sheldon, and now she was probably good for a week or two not seeing him, again.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Part of Penny's Life was Missing

The Wednesday evening with the girls was comforting for Penny, they had dinner and then stopped for drinks afterward. Penny kept herself to two drinks, she nursed for well over an hour, partly because she had to work the next day and partly because she didn't want to get drunk. They talked about a lot of things but Penny could see her friends were avoiding talking about her ordeal, almost two weeks ago, which she loved them for. However Penny was feeling better and could talk about it now, so she decided to bring up the subject herself.

"You know, this is nice, we haven't done anything like this since my incident at the Cheesecake Factory." Penny smiled at them.

Bernadette was first to broach the subject, "How have you been feeling about that now Penny."

"It is still in my mind, but I can live with it now. They told me it would eventually be just a memory in the future, and I really think they are right, it gets better everyday. Doing normal things like this help, getting back to my normal life, you know."

Amy now felt confident to enter the conversation, "So how has it been between you and Leonard, since this happened?"

The question really set Penny back, she suddenly felt concerned and it made her think to herself, 'Why haven't I seen Leonard?'. "Um…..I haven't seen him since that first weekend. I think he has been working late a lot…but I don't really know."

"Howard has been working late a lot too. I don't know what those guys are working on, but they sure have been putting in the hours." Bernadette added.

"Yeah, and I was gone this past weekend, to that spa and therapy, so we haven't got together." Penny now wondered more why they hadn't seen each other, usually they saw each other, even during difficult times.

The rest of the evening was relaxing for Penny and she was in her apartment, in bed, a little after 10 PM, feeling good. The only thing that bothered Penny was the conversation about Leonard they had this evening and now being alone in bed it was starting to feel lonely to her again, Leonard not being there felt strange. After this all first happened, she didn't want to talk to people, but now that she was getting back to, she was feeling the emptiness of him not being there. She began to wonder more again, why she hadn't seen him at all since that Sunday night the first weekend. She laid there awake, going over it in her mind, did she drive him off, she did that before when he rewrote her history paper, did she do that again when she told him she didn't want his company that Sunday? The more she thought about it, the more it seemed she did cause the situation she was now in between them, well she needed to fix that, because she was missing him and deep down she really needed him.

-TIN MAN-

Thursday Penny couldn't do much that day, about Leonard, she had to work, from after lunch to closing, the last 4 hours as a bartender. Penny had just arrived at work, and was putting her purse and jacket into her locker, when Cheryl arrived and headed right over to her with purpose. "Hey Penny, can you do me a favor and trade shifts tomorrow. I need the morning off to take care of a few things before the weekend."

"Yeah sure, especially since I owe you one for taking care of me last week."

Cheryl giggled a little, "You were pretty bad, you were an handful getting home."

"Yeah, sorry about that, and sorry you had to put me to bed."

"Well Leonard did most of the bed thing after I got you home. There was something that was funny though, he insisted that I get you into your pajamas, he seemed a little weird about it. You guys are still boyfriend and girlfriend aren't you?"

Penny nodded, confusion on her face. "Yeah we are. Leonard was there? He never said anything. But that would explain a few things like the water, aspirin and TV dinner…did I throw up while you were there?"

"No, you were really bombed though."

Penny stood there and thought, "I don't remember throwing up, but I know I must have. Leonard must have taken care of me."

"He didn't say anything?"

"No, I haven't seen him since."

Cheryl looked at Penny, seriously, "Penny is something up between you too. He seemed standoffish that night."

Penny shook her head, now confused.

The look on Penny's face, made Cheryl want to change the subject, "Oh well it is probably nothing, I had a few drinks in me too, so I probably wasn't all there either. Anyway, I need you to cover my shift from opening till 6 PM. Can you do that?"

Penny nodded, "Okay, I work from 3 PM to closing."

"Great I got it. I'll tell the manager were switching."

-TIN MAN-

The rest of the day went normally and after 7 PM that evening Bernadette and Amy came by to spend a couple of hours with Penny, while she tended bar. She always welcomed their company, especially on weekdays when the bar wasn't very busy, this day was no different. "Thanks guys for visiting, it is so boring tonight."

"No problem, Howard is working late again and I didn't want to go home anyway."

Amy smiled, "I came because I wanted to hang out with you." Bernadette gave her a quick glare and Penny giggled a little.

"I still appreciate it. What's your poison." Penny had a big smile on her face, which made both her friends smile in return.

The girls talked for the next hour, nursing their drinks, Penny really enjoyed their company. Penny didn't know who brought it up, but she talked a little about what happened there two weeks ago and they talked a little about her rescue some too. However Penny wasn't really interested in the mechanical man as much anymore, her mind kept going back to thinking about Leonard, so she decided to ask her friends about him. "Have you guys talked to Leonard this week?"

Amy and Bernadette both looked at her confused. "Haven't you?" Amy asked.

Penny shook her head. "No, have you guys?"

Bernadette and Amy both shook their heads. "I haven't seen him since the night you came home from the hospital." Bernadette looked at Penny with concern.

"Me neither." Amy added.

Penny stood their quietly for a little while, now making both girls look in concern. "Penny is something wrong between you and Leonard?" Amy asked her friend

Penny shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think so, but I haven't seen him for almost two weeks. I think maybe I drove him off with what was going on."

"He hasn't tried to help you?" Bernadette now was really concerned, she couldn't believe Leonard would not try to help her.

"Yeah, he did, but I sort of told him I didn't need him and I haven't seen him since. Well except, I came home drunk one night, the first week, and Cheryl told me he took care of me, but since then, I haven't seen him. I think he is giving me space, because of how I was acting towards him. I really need to see him tomorrow and get things back to normal." She didn't tell the girls she was becoming more and more concerned about what was going on between her and Leonard. She usually had a good handle on their relationship, but now she had no idea what was happening, it was actually starting to worry her.

Both girls nodded and then went back to talking about their own boyfriend and husband. The girls left a little after 9 PM and Penny left work a little after 10 PM, heading straight to her apartment to sleep, she had to get up early to cover Cheryl's shift. While laying in bed she thought about Leonard for a little while, aggravated with herself, that he wasn't with her now, she always fell right to sleep in his arms.

-TIN MAN-

Friday evening, after Penny returned from work, she showered, changed and took a few moments to sit on her couch and have a glass of wine, while she thought about things, before she went across the hall to check on her boyfriend. It was exactly two weeks since the incident and Penny had the evening off, so she wanted to spend it with Leonard, she was missing him more and more. She felt it was her fault she hadn't seen him, she had been so wrapped in the incident and the mechanical man, that she had neglected him and probably drove him away. He of course took care of her while she was drunk, and didn't tell her, she smiled as she realized that was exactly like him and was one of the reasons she loved him. Actually she really felt silly, she had been excited and so curious about the hero that saved her, she had ignored Leonard completely, this week, and she wondered why she did that, because now that she realized it she felt really bad. She had been so wrapped up in herself, but now after she had her head together, she needed him, because for her, when life went back to its normal routine, Leonard was the only one who made her happy. She once told the girls that her love for Leonard was a boring love, but what she really meant was that in the everyday progression of life, Leonard was the person she turned to because she always felt good with him. It was happening now, life was back to normal, and she needed Leonard, being with him was what she needed, it felt empty without him, so she got up and went to 4A.

Penny grabbed the doorknob and walked into her boyfriends apartment to see the guys playing Halo, it was now so obvious to her that Leonard was not there. "Where's Leonard?"

"Penny is that you? Yes you can come in." Sheldon mocked her then glared at her, but did not stop playing, instead then just ignoring her.

Penny walked in front of the TV, getting Sheldon's immediate attention. "Penny, you are ruining our game, move or you will get two strikes."

"Where's Leonard?"

"He's in his room, at least he has the decency to stay in his room when he is sick. Now move!"

"He's sick! How long?"

Howard put his controller down, "He has been sick for a couple days, but I think he is over the worse now." Howard was worried about Leonard and he hoped Penny was going to see him, he wouldn't see Howard.

"Howard, you can't just stop. We are getting killed here, pick that controller back up." Sheldon was now getting upset. "Yes he's sick, now leave us alone."

Penny reached back and turned off the TV, "Damm you Sheldon. Why didn't you tell me he was sick!"

Sheldon threw his hands in the air, "Penny! We have been playing for two hours and winning, but you now made that all for nothing. And why do you care if Leonard's sick, you have had nothing to do with him for the last two weeks."

Penny stood there speechless, she could feel the tears forming, she was a horrible girlfriend, Sheldon was right, she could have cared less about Leonard the last two weeks. Penny turned and headed to Leonard's room, not hearing the remarks Sheldon make to her back. Penny quietly opened Leonard's door and looked in, there was a night light on, so after her eyes adjusted she could see everything. Leonard was asleep, his breathing labored from congestion, and there were tissues all over the floor on the other side of the bed. His night stand had some medicine on it, plus a couple inhalers, she knew he was having trouble breathing, and she felt horrible again.

The sight of him curled up in bed made her heart actually hurt, as it became clear to her that he had needed her this week and she wasn't there for him. She had to take care of him, she needed to take care of him, it was her only thought, the only thing that made sense to her. Penny then quietly walked around his bed to look at him, he looked so sick, it made her feel terrible all over again, she was determined to make him better, she would stay with him till he was better. She slowly and quietly got in bed with him and put her arms around him, he felt a little cold, so she moved her body against him. As she took him into her arms, she couldn't help think how frail he felt, he seemed to have lost weight. A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought how he had been alone, with no one to take care of him, never complaining, just lying there suffering, so she laid her head next to his and after a little while she feel asleep with him.

Penny woke up to Leonard's raspy voice. "Penny…..Penny…..wake up."

"Sweetie, how are you feeling?"

"Penny, you shouldn't be here, you'll just get sick, like me." 

"No I won't Sweetie, I'll take care of you."

"No Penny, you have to leave, you'll get sick, then you won't be able to work and…and you need to leave."

"Sweetie, let me take care of you. I won't get sick, but if I do you can take care of me."

"Penny…..leave. I want you to leave. Please Penny, if you want to help me, leave."

Penny was about in tears, he was throwing her out, she needed to take care of him but he didn't want her, she couldn't believe how bad it made her feel. "Leonard, please let me take care of you." She repeated, "You are sick and need someone to help you, Sweetie. I'm here to help you."

"Penny, I'll be okay, you don't have to worry. Please just leave me be."

Penny just looked at him, he wanted her to leave him alone, just like she wanted him to leave her alone a couple of weeks ago. She forced herself up and got up from the bed, stopping at the door. "Leonard, I'm just across the hall if you need me."

"Okay, Thanks."

Penny then went out and closed the door, tears running down her face, as she stood outside his door, trying to keep from sobbing. After about a minute, she walked through the living room and out the apartment door, to her apartment, not stopping until she was laying on her bed, hugging her pillow and crying. Leonard had told her to go away and it was breaking her heart, he never acted like that before, she couldn't help but feel it was like telling her they were over.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - The Separation

Penny didn't see Leonard all weekend, not because she didn't want to, she went over to his and Sheldon's apartment each day, but each time Sheldon told her that he was getting better and didn't want to be disturbed. She sent text messages to him, but he never responded and when she used that to ask Sheldon if he was okay, Sheldon showed her his phone was on his desk and told her, he never saw them to respond. Penny had not felt this lonely, since Leonard went to the North Pole, and each night her bed felt cold and uninviting. The only thing that kept her from fixating about the situation all weekend was that she had to work both Saturday and Sunday, and being busy allowed her to not think so intensely about him.

-TIN MAN-

Leonard wasn't sick anymore, when Monday rolled around, but he was a little surprised his pants seemed so big when he got dressed. He was drinking fluids, but he had no idea that his reduced appetite would result in so much weight loss and he promised himself he would try to eat more this week. Sheldon finally seemed to understand Leonard didn't want to talk on the drive to work and he welcomed the silence now each morning with Sheldon. Sheldon also didn't ask him about going home with him, in the evening anymore, and got his owns rides home every evening. One the benefits of all this was Sheldon was getting more and more dependent on Amy, which Leonard thought was good, because he would need her after Leonard was locked up.

Howard was still watching Leonard, he had tried to talk to him again, last week, and Leonard had yelled at him, so now he just resigned himself to watch him to make sure that Leonard didn't hurt himself. Leonard hadn't seemed to get any worse, but also he hadn't seemed to get any better and Howard didn't know what to do, there was no one they could go to. He knew Bernadette knew something was up, but she never pressed him, so he stayed every night until Leonard left, and worked on Tin Man, fixing the previous damage, correcting weak areas and improving the suit just to keep busy and make the time go by. He had fixed any damage from the Cheesecake Factory event and was now just doing things to enhance the suit, like now putting in a video camera system that would allow the user to have infrared capability. Doing all this work on the suit kept Howard sane, because his worrying about Leonard, concern about what may happen with Bernadette, if his involvement came out, and his own future weighted heavily on him too.

Leonard was now able to work again, to keep his mind on something other than what happened that night, so he started to make progress on the report. He found it was easier, to just snack at his desk, than to try and force himself to eat meals, so he did this and found he didn't loose any more weight, but didn't gain any back either. He was getting use to being alone, and felt that was for the best, because he would be alone for years in jail. The hardest part was knowing he would never see Penny again, never hold her or feel her kiss him.

Penny had worked long shifts to closing on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but she was barely doing her job, she was depressed. All three days she worked the afternoon to closing shifts, which meant she wasn't home in the evening, when she normally saw Leonard, so she couldn't talk to him about what was happening between them. That bothered her, but what even concerned her more, was that she knew he was back to work and he hadn't even tried to contact her. That was not like Leonard, it was very unusual for him, it was something a person did when they broke up with you and it was seeming more and more to Penny that was what was happening between them.

Penny moped around and worked her job on auto pilot, all day Wednesday, her heart was not in it. That evening she worked a bar shift and it was so slow, she ended up just wiping the bar and thinking about Leonard, she couldn't understand what was going on, why wouldn't he talk to her, even just to tell her he was breaking up with her. That evening, after she got home, she decided to confront him, so since she had to get up early anyway for work, she set her alarm clock to catch him before he went to work. Penny actually went to bed, and slept a little better knowing she would confront him tomorrow morning.

Thursday morning Penny was up quickly after her alarm went off, she was nervous but she needed to see him, she had to talk to him. She brushed her hair, got her robe on and grabbed her coffee cup, it was going to be her excuse to go over there. Penny then crossed the hall and walked right in, she didn't want him to try and avoid her, "Hey guys, I'm out of coffee so I thought…" Penny stopped in her tracks, staring at Raj and Sheldon, who were now looking at her. "Where's Leonard?" was all that came out of her mouth next.

"He didn't come home again last night, so Raj is taking me to work. What are you doing up so early." Sheldon looked at her confused.

"Um…I was out of coffee and thought you might have some." Penny lied.

"No, since Leonard is not here to make it and I don't drink that caffeine filled drug, we don't have any made."

"Okay, thank you." Penny turned and practically ran out of the apartment to hers.

Raj looked at Sheldon, "What is she upset about?"

"Who knows, I tried tracking her menstrual cycle, but found she gets unpredictable even when she is not on it. It's getting late, let's go."

Penny needed the girls, she had to talk to someone about Leonard, so no sooner than she got back to her apartment she sent a text to both of them begging them to come over that night for a girls night. She was hoping that they knew what was wrong concerning him and what she did, she also thought they might know why he wouldn't talk to her. She couldn't help thinking that she did something horribly wrong, she knew she rejected him after everything first happened at the Cheesecake Factory, and as she thought, she remembered how she had done that many times before. Penny put her head in her hands, it seemed that she was always the screw up in their relationship anymore. She was the one with the indecision, the doubts, the one that was always causing conflict and the one who was always pushing him away. Leonard was the stable one, he knew what he wanted, he wanted to be with her, he had no doubt he loved her and he never pushed away until now. The only answer she had was that he had enough of her and was now done with her.

-TIN MAN-

She waited impatiently, after her morning shift Thursday, for the girls to come over and was just sitting there with a glass of wine trying to feel something other than dread. She missed him and didn't want to loose him, but she also didn't know what to do anymore.

The more Penny waited alone the more her thoughts ate at her, she was working herself into a seriously depressed state. She kept asking herself 'Why', and the problem was she kept finding reasons why, Penny had taken him for granted and now it was late to correct that. Penny was relieved, when she heard the knocks on the door, and finally felt a little comfort when the girls were finally sitting down, with glasses of wine, so she could talk to them.

"Amy, Bernadette, I really need help, do you know what is going on with Leonard? Is he okay? Has he said anything?"

Amy and Bernadette looked at each other, confused. "Penny I haven't seen him since the last time we talked, almost three weeks now. Haven't you seen him?" Amy was the first to respond.

Bernadette then spoke up. "Penny I still haven't seen him since the night you went through that ordeal."

Penny was so disappointed at their responses, her stomach hurt. "Bernadette has Howard said anything? Amy how about Sheldon?"

Amy spoke up first again. "The only thing Sheldon said was the first day I drove him home from work, he said Leonard was not living up to the room mate agreement and he would have to deal with him. Since then he has never mentioned him."

"I asked Howard about him, but Howard said he really hasn't seen him, that's all. Penny what is going on?"

"I don't know." Penny was even more confused and was trying to think of something as she stared at her glass of wine. Amy and Bernadette gave each other worried looks as they watched their friend who was in obvious despair.

"Penny did something happen. Did you guys break up?" Bernadette softly asked her.

"I don't really know." Penny responded quietly. "I haven't talked to him since Friday and then he told me to leave him alone." Penny sighed heavy. "He was sick last week and when I tried to take care of him, he told me to go away. And I think he is better, but he doesn't seem to want to see me. I don't know what is going on. Why is he doing this? Why is he doing this to me….. Why…. can't he see I love him." Penny went quiet again, staring at her glass.

Bernadette and Amy were staring at Penny, in disbelief, shocked at what she had just said. Amy again spoke first, asking the question they were both thinking, "Penny you love Leonard?"

Penny felt horrible, she was hoping her friends knew something, but their answers had just made her feel worse. She looked at Amy and she really didn't know what to say, so she just repeated herself. "Yes…..I love him."

Bernadette then jumped in. "Penny, you never said that before. The last time we really talked to you about this all, you weren't sure of your relationship with him."

Penny shook her head, "I…..I was confused, but everything worked out. We were doing so much better, really great, to be honest." Penny shook her head again, "Now I don't know what is going on, Bernadette… he won't talk to me. I'm thinking he has dumped me…..doesn't want me anymore, but how can I be sure if he doesn't tell me what is going on?"

Amy had sent a text to Sheldon and had just got a response, which made her frown, "Sheldon said he is working late again tonight, sorry."

Penny just looked at her. "That has been the story all week. Leonard doesn't act like this, this is so different for him. What am I suppose to think…..I don't really know, but it feels like he broke up with me."

"Penny you don't know that, Leonard is not just going to stop seeing you and not say anything." 

"I don't know Bernadette, I just don't know. I sent him a couple texts over the weekend he was sick, but he never responded, and Sheldon, said he didn't have or want his phone."

"Did you send him anything today?"

"No, I wanted to find out if you guys had heard anything." Penny's voice got quieter, "I was also a little scared too. I don't want to text him and him tell me we are through." her voice was now cracking a little as she talked.

Bernadette looked at Amy, and Amy got the hint. "Penny, Leonard will not break up with you with at text, you know that. Just send him something casual."

Penny slowly nodded, she didn't have a clue what to do, so Amy's idea was at least something. "Okay Amy." Penny fumbled with her phone and thought for a couple seconds, trying to calm herself, before she typed

**HOW HAVE YOU BEEN FEELING. HAVEN'T SEEN YOU. ARE YOU BETTER?**

She sighed again, then showed the girls the phone. "Is this casual enough?" The girls nodded, so Penny hit send.

Leonard was sitting at his desk, when his phone vibrated, so he picked it up and read Penny's text message. She was just asking him how he was, but it still bothered him, he wanted her to break off all contact with him. It was bad enough that people knew who he was, where she worked, and he showed up in that suit to make her safe, he needed to try and make sure they didn't link her to him. He didn't want the authorities to see she was contacting him the whole time, they would think she was some how involved, he had to protect her. Leonard couldn't make this text go away but he needed to send her a text that would look like he wasn't that closely linked to her. If they didn't know they were boyfriend and girlfriend, things should be fine, it wasn't like they would assume a beautiful girl like her would be with him, nobody ever did.

**I KNOW I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU FOR A LONG WHILE, I AM FINE. I HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY, BUT THANKS FOR ASKING. I'LL PROBABLY BE BUSY FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. TAKE CARE.**

Leonard reread the text, and he thought anyone who read it later, would think him and Penny where people who knew each other, but were not close and had not seen each other for a while. Satisfied he hit send.

Penny smiled, for the first time that day, when she hear her phone's text notification chime. Maybe the girls were right and she had overreacted, she quickly picked it up so the girls could see and after she read his text, she felt worse. She thought 'A few months', what does he mean by than, boyfriends and girlfriends that live across the hall from each other don't see each other in a few months, unless he now didn't consider her his girlfriend. Penny looked at Amy and Bernadette, she didn't like what she saw, they both had confused expressions on their faces, like she felt.

She still had no idea what was going on. "Guys please tell me you know what he means?"

Bernadette and Amy looked at each other, then her, neither of them had a clue.

-TIN MAN-

It was midnight when Bernadette finally got home and confronted Howard. "Howie do you know what I did all night?"

"No Honey, what?"

"I spent the whole night trying to get a very upset Penny to calm down. You know why she was upset?"

Howard didn't like where this was going, Bernadette wasn't happy at all, "No."

"Because her boyfriend is acting weird and doesn't seem to want to be with her. Howard, what the hell is wrong with Leonard?"

Howard looked at his wife and thought, 'Well honey, Leonard saved Penny's life and killed a man to do it, and is thinking he will probably go to jail, so he is still trying to keep her and me safe by distancing himself from everyone', however he said, "Honey, I don't know. I haven't seen him or talked to him in almost 3 weeks. I know he is working a project for Dr Hogan, you know the guy that had the heart attack, maybe he is working on that trying to do a two man job by himself." he lied. If the truth ever came out, and she found out he was involved, Bernadette was going to kill him. Howard had only gotten home an hour before Bernadette, he left Leonard asleep in his office, obviously he was not going back to his apartment that night. Howard would have stayed the night too, but he couldn't figure a way to explain it to Bernadette.

-TIN MAN-

Penny sat in her apartment, after the girls left, just plain feeling bad and helpless, she had felt a little better when the girls were there, but now, alone again, the same thoughts crossed her mind. It really felt like she would never see him again and that was breaking her heart, she felt terribly alone, she really did love him, she honestly knew that now. Her worst fears were coming true, she had someone she loved deeply and now she was loosing him, and she had no one to blame but herself. The text he sent only made things worse, she had to communicate with him, tell him how she felt, but her trying to call him or text him was doing no good, she just wanted a way to get through to him, when she noticed her laptop on the coffee table. Penny quickly grabbed it and turned it on, then opened her email account and hit the write button, she had tell him how she felt.

**LEONARD**

**I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING BETWEEN US, I REALLY DON'T. IT IS REALLY HARD TO UNDERSTAND ANYTHING, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING. PLEASE TALK TO ME AND TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG. I KNOW THINGS HAVE BEEN HARD BETWEEN US BEFORE, BUT I AT LEAST KNEW WHAT WAS WRONG. I JUST NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS WRONG. PLEASE LEONARD STOP AVOIDING ME AND JUST TALK TO ME AND EXPLAIN IT TO ME. I KNOW I AM NOT AS SMART AS YOU, BUT I THINK I WILL UNDERSTAND IF YOU TELL ME. **

**I REALLY CAN'T BE OKAY IF YOU DON'T TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG OR WHAT I DID? **

**PLEASE SWEETIE DON'T SHUT ME OUT. PLEASE LET'S TALK, OK. **

**PENNY**

Penny hit send and watched the email go out, she felt a tiny bit better, so she got a bottle of water and sat on her couch thinking, her mind going back to her laptop. She thought, 'He had to respond to that, right? He wouldn't just ignore her request, would he?' The more she stared at it the more she felt she had to tell him more, so she picked it up again and started typing.

**HONEY**

**PLEASE COME AND TALK TO ME, I MISS YOU HONEY. I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW EMPTY IT IS WITHOUT YOU. PLEASE COME BACK TO ME. PLEASE UNDERSTAND IF IT WAS BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED A FEW WEEKS AGO, I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT YOU. I KNOW WHAT EVER THE PROBLEM IS WE CAN FIX IT. HONEY, I NEED YOU IN MY LIFE.**

**YOUR PENNY**

Penny hit send again and put the laptop back on the coffee table, then stood up to get ready for bed. She got her pajamas on, turned out the light, and got into bed, her emotions getting the better of her, her eyes now wet. She knew she had got better from the event 3 weeks ago, but there was still one thing in her life she so needed to make her life normal again, it was her Leonard, she needed him there holding her and making her feel safe. She just couldn't imagine her life anymore without him, if she didn't have him anymore, she would always wonder what her life would have been with him. No matter who she was with, she would always think about him and what their life could be together, she really didn't want anyone else. Leonard was one of a kind, she knew that now, men like Leonard were special, and every girl that really knew him either liked him or wanted him. Men like she knew before Leonard, were a dime a dozen, she just couldn't loose Leonard. The thought of never having what she had with him again was just too much, so she got out of bed and went to her laptop again, she started typing, she felt like if she didn't do something drastic she would completely loose him, so she let her heart now tell her what to type.

**HONEY**

**I KNOW THIS IS A STUPID WAY TO DO IT BUT RIGHT NOW I DON'T KNOW ANYWAY ELSE TO TELL YOU.**

**I LOVE YOU LEONARD**

**PLEASE HONEY, YOU TOLD ME YOU LOVE ME. I LOVE YOU TOO. I'M SORRY, I SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU LONG BEFORE, BUT BELIEVE ME IT IS TRUE. PLEASE CONTACT ME, PLEASE COME BACK TO ME.**

**LOVE PENNY**

Penny stared at the email a few seconds, then hit send, she felt a little better and she had no regrets. She just hoped he still loved her, because he now had her heart in his hands.

-TIN MAN-

Leonard sat as his desk, Friday morning, looking at his laptop, he hadn't moved for the last hour, reading and re-reading her short emails. 'Why, why now.' he thought, she was telling him she loved him and wanted him, no needed him, this couldn't be happening now, it was the worst time in his life to happen. He didn't know what to do, how could he explain to her that it wouldn't work, not anymore, things were too screwed up to fix, it was too late. The emotional pain he was feeling was as bad as when they first broke up, she loved him and he couldn't be with her anymore, he put his head in his hands, it just wasn't fair.

Howard made his way to Leonard's office, between his wife and how Leonard was acting, he had to talk to him, things seemed just to be spiraling out of control. He didn't know what exactly to say, but he was not going to let Leonard intimidate him this time, he had even prepared himself to be punched, this was important and he decided he could take a punch from Leonard if it made things better. He wasn't surprised to find Leonard's door locked, when he arrived, he knocked as hard as he could, he was coming in one way or another.

"I'm busy." Howard expected that from him.

"Leonard, it's Howard, let me in." What Howard was not expecting was hearing some movement inside and then the door unlocking.

Leonard opened the door and looked at him, "Come in." Leonard then sat back down at his desk and put his head back in his hands.

Howard was a little surprised, Leonard still seemed really down, more than before, but now also suddenly very docile, what as going on. "Leonard, we need to talk about things and Bernadette wants me talk to you about Penny."

At the sound of 'Penny', Leonard took his head out of his hands and looked at Howard, his expression strained. "I need to talk to someone about Penny too, Howard. Please come here at look at this."

No sooner as Howard moved behind Leonard and looked at the short emails, he understood the pain his friend must be now going through, however Howard didn't know what to tell him to help. "I'm sorry, Leonard."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - Too Much Information

Col Turner found Howard and Leonard in Leonard's office both staring at Leonard's laptop, reading his email. Penny's emails had been getting to Leonard, he could read the pain in them and it was breaking his heart, he actually needed his friend to try and help him do something to keep Penny out of all this. When Leonard looked up, he actually was startled, he really thought Turner had come to take him away.

"Gentlemen can you spare me a few minutes of your time?" Turner looked at them and as soon as they nodded he closed Leonard's door. "Okay, before we start you both have DoD security clearances, so everything I talk to you about next is classified secret, understand? Nothing leaves this room."

Leonard and Howard nodded again, so Turner took out a computer generated photo from an envelope marked secret and put it on the desk in front of them. Howard recognized what was in the picture quickly, partly because he could read the Russian on parts of the casing. "That is a Russian nuclear artillery shell." Howard then looked at Turner for confirmation.

Turner nodded, "See how it is opened up and the wires coming out of it to that hand held trigger? Can you tell me how complete the firing system is and your best guess on how complex?" Turner now watched Howard who was studying the picture.

Howard had been working on Government projects since he got to Cal Tech, and if it wasn't for the Government, he probably wouldn't have a job. The Army and NASA had kept Howard in video games for the last ten years. The last five years Howard had worked on analyzing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), for the Army, as part of his job, so the circuitry he was looking at seemed very familiar, almost a copy of other actual devices he had seen before. The only thing was he never seen this circuitry on a weapon of this type before.

After a few more minutes, Howard looked back at Turner, "It looks very simple, they just wired it to be fired by someone pushing the trigger, that is all. However, there is some kind of display and box on the side you can't really make out enough to see."

"A booby-trap maybe?"

"I don't think so, if it was a booby-trap it would be more inline with firing lines, not to the side. It could be more like a back up system, maybe….I don't know, it is hard to see."

"But definitely not a booby-trap."

"I don't think so, but you never can be 100 percent sure unless you actually look at it."

"Okay fine that helps. Dr Hofstadter, I need to tell me the radius of damage, with this much yield." Turner showed Leonard another classified table of values, it was a table of yields for Russian weapons of this type.

Leonard had some experience in Nuclear Physics, like a lot of Physicists so, also he had worked some projects for the DoD too, so he tried to relate what he was reading to actual damage. "I'm a little rusty but I think from one half to one mile, and I would pick one mile to be safe."

"Okay that helps. Gentlemen remember, I wasn't here and you didn't see this." Leonard and Howard both nodded again. They sat there quietly for a few minutes after Turner left, both lost in their own thoughts.

"That was weird." Howard finally stated and Leonard just nodded. Howard then tried to get his mind off what just happened and slowly tried to get his mind back to the subject of Penny. Leonard's mind had gone quickly to Penny, Turner almost immediately becoming just a memory to him.

-TIN MAN-

The day was now over for Leonard but it was a complete disaster for him, he knew what he had to do, but he didn't want to do it and he hated himself that he wasn't smart enough to find another way. Howard agreed with his solution, but that only made thing worse, because it meant that his solution was probably the only solution, which Leonard really wished wasn't true. He sent a text to Penny in the afternoon to tell her he read her emails and wanted to talk, it killed him that she probably thought her emails had been effective in solving this problem. The thought of breaking up with the woman he loved made him sick to his stomach and he popped a couple 'TUMS', the only thing he had been able to eat all afternoon. At least Howard had insisted he come with him to help, Leonard thought he would need his support before the night was out.

It was a little before 6 PM when Leonard and Howard showed up at Leonard's apartment, Leonard was feeling like hell. He was suppose to go over to her apartment, in a couple minutes, to tell her they were through, he had no choice, otherwise she would just keep trying to find out what was wrong with him and get herself involved. Bernadette told Howard she and Amy were at Penny's apartment helping her with her problems with Leonard, tonight again, so at least he knew she would have them there that night and that might help her get better quickly. Leonard watched the clock slowly move to 6 PM then looked at Howard, it was time for him to walk across the hall to talk to her.

The knock on the door surprised them all, but Penny thought the knock seemed familiar, so she practically ran to the door, opening it. She was so happy to see him standing outside the door, but the happiness turned to dread when he just looked at her saying nothing. The happiness she had felt earlier, when she thought they would talk and things would get better, was now all gone. Fear now seemed to form in her, "Leonard, I missed you." was all she could get out of her mouth.

"Penny we need to talk." He looked around her at the girls sitting on the couch, hoping they got the hint to leave, to give them a few minutes alone.

"Leonard Hofstadter we are not leaving." Bernadette was pissed.

"Penny, please." Leonard looked back at Penny, with pleading eyes.

Penny knew what was going to happen, there was nothing she could do about it, her guts were churning and she felt like she wanted to throw up. "Amy and Bernadette, please."

"You sure Bestie?" Penny nodded and both girls looked at each other, then got up to leave.

"Howard is next door." Leonard told them and they understood they shouldn't go far.

Amy and Bernadette closed Penny's door and walked across the hall, going into Leonard and Sheldon's apartment only to find Howard staring at the TV. Bernadette felt terrible and didn't know how Howard could just sit there and watch TV. "Howie?" Howard never took his eyes off the TV, "Howard?" Bernadette still didn't get a response from him. "HOWARD!"

Howard just put a finger up, never turning his head. "One minute."

Leonard walked slowly over to the couch with Penny, she felt like a person on death row, she realized just by looking at him, nothing she said or did would change what was going to happen. She was so desperate she did the only thing she thought could do any good. "Leonard, I love you."

Leonard was about to speak, but now he didn't know what to say, he never expected her to say that, not that. The both sat there for a few painful minutes, Leonard trying to compose his thoughts and Penny not caring if he didn't speak, because she didn't want him to say they were breaking up. It was during that silent moment, that Howard burst through the door.

"Leonard, turn on the TV, man, it's important turn it on." Howard was frantic, Amy and Bernadette followed him back over in bewilderment.

Leonard looked at Howard then at Penny, confused, but it must be important, Howard knew what he was doing, so it must be important, right? He grabbed for the remote on the coffee table then looked at Penny, confusion all over her face, who just nodded. He turned on the TV to see a news special announcement, Terrorists had taken over a building in Los Angeles and the Army was evacuating a mile around the building. The one mile stuck in Leonard's brain as it all came together, he looked at Howard who nodded.

Leonard was still staring at Howard in disbelief, when Howard's phone beeped for a message. Howard had hacked into the Turner's Army email, he already had an account on the system to support his work for them, but he wanted to get an original digital copy of the picture Colonel Turner showed him, he wanted to find out what the thing was on the side. He knew if he found out what it was and it was important, Turner wouldn't be too upset with his hacking. Howard used a special computer program in the university that could look at reflections to estimate what an object was, that couldn't be seen. He had thought of it when he saw a reflection on the polished wall behind the object. The computer program would go through trillions of possibilities, so even though Howard started it at lunch, it was only now telling him it was finished. Howard now looked at his phone then to Leonard, "The program has a picture."

Leonard nodded and got up, things were getting to weird and dangerous, he followed Howard to his apartment to use his laptop. Penny watched him leave, now completely baffled, thinking "What is going on.' Bernadette and Amy just stood there looking at her, equally as confused.

Howard had the picture sent to Leonard's university email account and as the picture came up they both recognized what they were seeing. The picture was of a timer, with two clock screens, one looked like local time and the other was set at 2400, which was midnight. Howard was the first to speak, "it's a timer, it is going off at midnight."

Leonard just stared at him, "Yeah. We need to tell the Army."

"I can send them an email, since I have an account, that is how I got into Turner's." Howard opened Turner's email and was about to open a new email to him when he saw something on Turner's email list that caught his eye. Howard stopped and opened the email, so they both could read it and they both read it a couple times before they felt they really understood.

"Howard they are going to bomb the building, with one of those smart bombs, that is not really good."

"It will go off?" Howard looked at Leonard, he was the real expert in nuclear physics.

"Maybe, if it is located deep in the building they will hear enough, soon enough, to push the trigger, but even if the Army is successful, the bomb explosion that destroys it, will send the radioactive material all over the city. LA will be poisoned for a long time."

"So you say it is no win for Los Angeles." Leonard just nodded to Howard.

Leonard stared at the screen for a few more minutes, then looked at Howard, "They need help."

Howard's eyes went wide, and he shook his head, "Let's just tell them about the timer and run north."

"There is almost 6 hours left, I could be there in two and then take an hour to try. If I don't make it you could still tell them 2-3 hours before anything happens. Besides they are never going to get all the people out of the zone in time, you saw the news report."

"Leonard, no. It's suicide."

A little smile formed on Leonard's face, "It is better then the alternative."

"WHAT IS SUICIDE?" Leonard and Howard turned to see Penny standing in the doorway, with Bernadette and Amy behind her, Penny's eyes wide.

Howard hit the off button on the computer, to blank the screen, then looked back at the girls. Leonard looked at Penny, suddenly feeling she was in danger again, he had to do something. Leonard looked at Howard, when he mouthed 'We need to do something', to which Howard just shook his head.

"No, everyone needs to leave." Howard countered, speaking out loud.

It was then that the both of them realized the girls again, looking at each of them and the confusion on their faces. Leonard slowly looked at Penny, then Bernadette and Amy, "You guys need to grab a couple days of clothes and some bottled water and leave in the next ten minutes. Drive north by northwest, don't stop till you reach…." Leonard thought for a moment, "Oxnard, don't even think of stopping till you reach there, but go farther if you can"

"Take Sheldon, Raj, and pick up my mom, but go now." Howard added.

"What about you guys." Penny was now scared.

"We have to get something from the university, but we will be right behind you. Now go. Please go." Leonard had stood up and looked directly at Penny, into her eyes, while he had talked.

"Leonard, you're scaring me. What is happening?"

"Penny please, that TV special about those terrorists taking over the building is serious. We think they have something like nerve gas and if they release it, it will travel all over the city and downwind. You girls need to get in a car and go north for a while. It is bad, real bad, please do what I tell you. Please for once just do what I tell you. Penny, if you love me you will go for me."

Penny stared at him for a few minutes but she nodded. "Okay Leonard."

"Thank you."

"Nerve gas?" Bernadette looked confused and then looked at Howard.

"Yeah." Howard now joined Leonard's lie. "If you go up to like Oxnard, or farther, you should be safe. Just get everyone quickly and take them with you, leave now, okay."

Bernadette narrowed her eyes at her husband. "What are you doing at the university?"

"We are going to get some gas detectors, and will be right behind you." Leonard broke in to keep the story going."

Penny stared at Leonard, something was wrong, she felt he was lying. "Forget the gas things, just come with us."

Leonard shook his head, "We can't, we have to get them, it is important. You leaving is important too. We need to go now, so we can catch up quickly." Leonard stood up, and Howard followed him.

They quickly walked by the girls, Howard kissing Bernadette, Leonard gave Penny a kiss, it was so hard to stop, he knew it was his last one. The guys rushed down the stairs, but Penny went into the hallway, the acoustics of the stairs letting her hear from the landing below as the guys continued down. Howard was saying, 'Leonard, let the Army do it, we can't do anything about a bomb.' then Leonard, 'Howard, we have to try, I have to try.'

Penny then looked back at Bernadette and Amy, "they said BOMB!"

The girls grabbed their purses and headed downstairs, just in time to see Howard and Bernadette's car leave the parking lot, tires squealing. Amy, Bernadette and Penny looked at each other, Penny finally speaking, "They're lying."

Bernadette slowly nodded, "I think you're right."

"Come on, we need to see what they are up to."

"You sure, a lot of what they said is on TV." Amy reminded them.

"But they are not telling us the truth. There is something they are up to and I don't like it. Leonard has been acting weird and then that thing about suicide, plus I heard them say bomb. I need to know what they are up to, you guys go on, I'll go by myself." Penny started to head to her car.

Bernadette looked at Amy. "Also Amy, think about it, if we drive far away and are not downwind, why would they need gas detectors for a release here." Amy slowly nodded.

Amy's car was the closest and was better than Penny's so the girls caught up to her, and they all piled in to Amy's car to follow the guys.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 - Disbelief and Understanding**

It was around 7 PM on a Friday night, so traffic was still bad around Pasadena, it took Leonard and Howard almost an hour to get to Cal Tech. Normally that would be bad, however this time it wasn't, because using his smart phone, Leonard researched the building that was being occupied by the terrorists and found out there were three, exactly the same 15 story buildings, in a row, with the terrorists occupying the last. While Leonard was doing this, Howard was remembering something about the buildings, something that was unique for them when they were built. That information led to more research and before their car came to a halt in the Cal Tech parking lot, Leonard and Howard had devised the beginning of a plan.

The girls hurried to catch the guys and by the time the girls got to the university, they could see the guys walking to the entrance of the building. Amy pulled close to the curb, while Penny jumped out of the car to run to the door, catching it before it completely closed and locked again, after the guys went in. She then slowly peaked inside to see the guys moving quickly down the hall, oblivious to the fact they were being followed. Penny went in, followed by Bernadette and hurried after them, Bernadette, with her short legs, following a little behind. They guys moved quickly through the university and Penny had to work keeping up with them, sometimes turning the wrong way, luckily she was faster than them so she would quickly correct and catch up. She didn't know a lot about the building, they were in, but she did know that they were not going to Leonard's lab or office, she had been there before and this was not the way.

Leonard and Howard went deeper and deeper into the building and Penny couldn't believe how large the building was, she was more than a little concerned when they disappeared into a basement corridor. A sudden thought of Alice going down the rabbit hole crossed her mind and she quickly dismissed it, not knowing how true that was going to be in the next few minutes. She was, however, really wondering what was going on, when suddenly they stopped at a set of double doors, unlocked them and then disappeared inside. No sooner than the door closed she could see the light escaping from the cracks in the door, giving the hallway a soft glow, and marking the room they were in. Penny went back a short distance and looked back to see Bernadette catching up, so she gave her a wave, then slowly proceeded to the doors. As Penny approached, the light from inside escaping through the cracks in the door frame, seemed so bright, and she heard the hum of electrical equipment from inside. Penny quickly checked to see that Bernadette saw where she was standing and understood what she was doing and after she did that, she opened the door.

Penny using her wildest imagination would have never dreamed up what she saw when she opened the door. It was like a portal from the real world into another world, a world like out of the guys comic books, the change was so unbelievable to her. She thought at first she was hallucinating and suddenly felt unsteady on her feet, grabbing the side of the door, the sight was too incredible for her mind to wrap itself around. Penny's eyes scanned the room from right to left, and even after taking it all in and realizing what she was seeing was real, she still was completely amazed, "Oh my God." she whispered to herself.

Penny then took a couple steps into the large room and stopped, trying to grasp what she was seeing, and understand the scene in front of her. There was a hum of electricity in the room, the smell of ozone, you could feel the energy and there was equipment everywhere. Howard was moving around a small structure supporting a large thing, the thing from the Cheesecake Factory, with a laptop in his hands and that was connected to wires that ran to the thing. The thing, that was really not the right term to describe it because now she understood what it was, the thing was actually a suit with a man in it. It was that man, that shook her to her very core, her knees felt weak, and she found it was hard to breathe, that man was Leonard. She couldn't take her eyes off him, he looked like a knight in armor, a warrior, she was in awe of him, sweet wonderful Leonard was her Hero. Even with this incredible scene, and the shock of everything she saw in the last few minutes, deep down in her soul, it somehow all made sense to her, it was Leonard. Tears formed in her eyes and her body actually trembled, a small smile slowly appearing on her face, Leonard had came for her, the thing that rescued her was Leonard, he was the man who saved her. Penny just stood there, frozen in place, the tears dripping down her face, staring at the man she loved more than any other person in the world.

Howard's peripheral vision picked her up and when he turned his head, he saw her. "Crap!"

Howard's outburst made Leonard look at him then over to where he was looking, his heart seemed to stop, it was Penny and she was crying. "Penny?"

Howard walked up to Penny, she seemed in a trance, staring at Leonard. "Penny! What are you doing here?"

Penny blinked her eyes and finally looked at Howard, "I followed Leonard, I was worried so I followed him."

"You can't be here." Howard looked at Leonard. "Leonard tell she can't be here!"

Leonard swallowed, "Penny, Howard is right, you need to leave, you need to leave the city fast, get at least 20 miles away before you slow down. And go Northwest, Penny. Go Penny, go now."

Penny was so confused, her mind was still going though sensory overload and the whole night had been so confusing to her, she had so many questions, she didn't know where to begin. She had for weeks wanted to thank the person who rescued them all from those killers and who had saved her life, but now everything was different. She had been in mortal danger and the man, who always professed his love for her, came to save her, he came to her and rescued her, somehow thank you seemed such a silly thing to say. "No Leonard, we need to talk. This is….." Penny voice cracked as she looked around in awe. "Leonard, we need to talk about this."

Leonard shook his head, "Penny, you don't understand, you need to go now. There is no time to talk. Please Penny go, before it is too late." Leonard then looked to Howard for help.

"What's too late?" Everyone now looked at the doorway at Bernadette.

"Oh double crap." Howard whispered.

Bernadette looked at scene in front of her, then at Howard and Leonard, 'What is going on?"

This situation seemed to spiraling out of control, both of the girls were now there, and Leonard, already stressed, couldn't take it any longer, time was running out and they didn't have it to waste, "YOU BOTH NEED TO GO!, Dammit, won't you two just listen once! There is a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles and it is going to go off, so get the hell out of here. I don't want you to die!"

Leonard was yelling at her, she started to cry, "What about you. Come with us, both of you."

"Nuclear warhead!" Bernadette looked at Howard with shock and anger.

"I can't Penny, you need to go now." Leonard's angry outburst was over and now he was just frustrated, he took a breath, then looked at Bernadette. "Howard will leave as soon as we are done here, Bernadette." Leonard gave Bernadette a look, that left no question in her mind, he was serious.

"Leonard what are you doing?" Penny felt she was loosing him, she was getting desperate.

"I need to try and stop them."

"NO LEONARD!" She couldn't believe what he was saying. "Let the authorities do that, you go with me."

"I can't Penny, they don't have the capacities this suit does, Howard has made it even more powerful, they need me."

Penny looked at Howard, who looked down and nodded, she hated him so much right now. She had to get Leonard to leave with her, she would do anything to get him to leave, "Leonard, I love you, and I will marry you, anytime, anyplace, this evening if you want, but you have to come with me now, we can't be together if you are dead."

Leonard smiled, she loved him, she had to survive, "Penny if you love me you will leave me now. I can't do this not knowing you are safe, I'll worry and I will fail. If you love me and want me to succeed, you have to go to safety now. Please Penny do this for me."

Penny just stared at him, she didn't want him to die, she really did love him, she didn't want to be without him. "Leonard…." she didn't know what to say.

Leonard smiled at her, the smile that was just for her, "Penny, I love you too, I will always love you. Please go now. Please do this for me."

Penny felt such a sense of defeat, it made her body go cold and slowly she nodded, looked at Howard, then ran to Leonard, stepping up on the little stool in front of him. She came nose to nose with him, she had tears in her eyes, "Please Leonard, Please, I love you and need you. Just come with me, so we can both be safe, Please."

Leonard didn't know were he got the emotional strength, but somewhere inside him he found in, "I can't Penny. I just can't. I have to try and do something, I have to."

"NO!" Penny kissed him, "NO, Please NO!" She kissed him again, tears were now freely flowing down her face.

"Penny, I can't. Please you have to go now. It is not safe for you here. Please do this for me. I need you to be safe, understand."

"No, Leonard, No." Penny had her arms wrapped around his neck holding on for dear life.

She had to go, Leonard had to make her go, he couldn't do anything with her in danger. Her face was against his, her tears wetting his face, he was about to cry himself, he had to make her go. "Penny, I don't have much time, the longer you stay the less chance I have to survive, you not going is making it more dangerous for me." He hated to say that but it was true and she needed to leave.

Penny pulled her head back and looked at him with horror in her eyes, she was endangering him, 'Oh My GOD!' she thought. She didn't know what to do, she didn't want him to do this, but she couldn't change his mind and every second was putting him in more danger. 'Why is this happening to us?' her mind screamed. She looked into his eyes and realized she had lost, he was going to do this, and she was wasting his valuable time, making it harder for him. Penny slowly nodded, trying hard not begin sobbing, she whispered to him, "I love you Leonard Hofstadter, you are my Super Hero." and then she kissed him, it was the most passionate kiss Penny ever gave a man, it didn't come from her heart, it came from her soul. She didn't want it to end, but much too quickly he stopped her, she didn't even hear the servos in his arms as he slowly brought them up and put his ungloved hands around her waist.

"Penny, you need to go now." Then he gently lifted her off the stool and put her on the floor in front of him.

Penny just stared at him, she was paralyzed with fear for him and the incredible need for him to go with her to safety.

She just stood there in front of him, he had to get her moving, "Please Penny."

She didn't even know how she did it, maybe it was the pleading look in his eyes she couldn't say no to, but she finally stepped back and walked to the door where Bernadette still stood. The whole way she never took her eyes off of Leonard, trying to capture him in her mind forever, she really didn't know if she would ever see him again.

Bernadette went to Howard and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him, even though Leonard said he would follow, she couldn't help the uneasy feeling in her heart.

"Bernadette you need to go too, get Amy Sheldon and Raj and go at least to Oxnard, go there now and wait for us." Howard said to Bernadette, then looked at Leonard.

"Howie, you're coming, you are not staying." Tears were now falling down Bernadette's cheeks.

"As soon as Leonard is on his way, I will come."

Bernadette nodded and walked back to Penny and once both of them were through the door, Howard closed it and they heard the click of the lock. They walked down the hall, tears coming from their eyes, they knew in their hearts if they went away they would never see them again, and they both knew it would kill them inside, just like that bomb could kill them outside.

-TIN MAN-

Howard and Leonard now worked quickly getting the suit ready and worked out the rest of their plan, it had to simple, they didn't have much time. Howard checked the internet for any additional information he needed and Leonard ran some calculations on a tablet, with his ungloved hands, while they both also went through the suit checkout. They finally felt they were ready, as ready, as they could get in the short time they had.

Leonard took a deep breath, "Okay Howard, lets get this finished up, so I can get to it and you can leave too."

"Leonard…."

Leonard's anger flared again, the stress of what they were doing was making him a wreck, having to do all this plus having to argue with the people he loved, to make them safe. "Don't you give me shit too, Howard, You are not Penny, I'll hit you. You are going to leave as soon as you drop me off."

"Leonard, you don't have to do this, you can be with Penny and we can all go north."

Leonard's angry outburst drained away, almost as quickly as it flared, again. "I can't Howard. I haven't felt right since we first used this suit. I need to do this, I really do."

"But your chances are so slim, we don't even have much of a plan."

"Yeah, but we at least have a plan, we didn't have that the first time."

"Leonard, it is still suicide. You know that. Either the warhead is going to go off or the military is going to bomb the building, with you in it, if you get that far. You chances of doing anything useful are very slim to none."

Leonard nodded. "I thought about that and I know if it is to end, I'd rather it ended this way then in jail. I don't think I could live without Penny anymore, and I don't really want to try. Howard, I'll give it a good shot, and maybe I will succeed, but if I don't, I won't have any regrets, I really won't. Believe me my friend, it is better this way. "

Howard looked at him, then slowly nodded, "Okay, let me get your systems checks finished."

-TIN MAN- 

Penny and Bernadette had ran out the door of the university and to the car Amy was in, as soon as they left the guys, they knew they didn't have much time.

"Amy something really bad is happening, you need to get Sheldon, Raj and Howard's mother and go north west, at least as far as Oxnard." Bernadette instructed her.

"What is happening?" Amy was really confused.

"Amy those terrorists in LA have a nuclear bomb." Bernadette and Penny watched Amy turn as white as a sheet.

"What about you guys?"

"We will go with Leonard and Howard. We'll be right behind you by a few minutes. You need to go and get everyone."

"Okay, I'll get them, see you later." Amy started the car and drove off, glad for once her mother and family lived so far away from her.

Penny looked at Bernadette, "I'm not leaving."

"You don't think I am either, do you?"

Penny smiled, "We have to follow them somehow." She now realized she didn't have a plan.

Bernadette smiled and reached into her purse, taking out car keys and waving them in front of Penny, "The car Howard drove over here is my car." Penny nodded and the girls then ran to Howard's parking spot. They would end up waiting for almost an hour before they saw the large van truck leave the back of the building, with Howard in the drivers seat. Both girls sitting quietly, lost in their own thoughts, the whole time while they waited.

While Penny waited she was still trying to sort out what she had experienced in the last couple of hours, it was so surreal to her. The amazing things Leonard had shown her in the lab, and Howard's space work, made it easier for her to grasp that they had made this thing. Both of them were so incredibly smart, when she really thought of it, she couldn't imagine anyone but guys like them building it. Leonard had amazed her before, but now she was just blown away, she knew she would never be able to be with someone else without comparing them to Leonard, and that was the thing, she knew no man would ever measure up to Leonard, in her mind, ever again.

She thought back to all her time with Leonard, he was amazing, she always sort of knew that, but now there was absolutely no doubt in her mind. She had never met anyone like him and she knew she would never meet the likes of him ever again. She now couldn't stop thinking about how Leonard came for her to save her, it had all happened so fast, he never hesitated when she was in danger, and he killed a man to save her. Penny promised herself, she was not going to let him go, she wanted him forever, she needed him, she couldn't see her life anymore without him. Then an extreme sense of sadness enveloped her, if she had only knew it was Leonard, she could have spent the last three weeks in his arms, now she may never get that chance again. Penny felt like a fool, she shook her head in disbelief as she sat there, remembering when she would go after big muscle bound 'bad boys', when in reality the genius across the hall was probably the biggest 'bad ass' man she ever was going to meet, in her life, he made every guy she dated before look so small, even Kurt. Tears fell down her face as she wished it wasn't true, she wished Leonard wasn't so brave, and instead was with her right now driving to safety, she felt so ashamed of ever considering that he might not be the man she wanted, she knew now he was the one.

Bernadette sat there thinking too, she was a little angry, why was Howard in danger again, why was this happening again. She never told him exactly how badly she didn't want him to go to space, she was terrified the whole time he was there. Now he was doing it again, only this time he was getting into even more danger, and all she could do was watch. She thought she was marrying this weak little nerd, but did she get a surprise, he turned out to be some kind of adventurer almost like the Indiana Jones character the guys were so enamored with. Her Howie was more of a man than any other man she had ever dated or known, and she couldn't help but feel both admiration and anger towards him. But most of all she just wanted him, she wanted to hold him and him to be safe, she knew her life would never be the same without him and she would never love anyone as much of him. A couple tears fell down her cheeks and she kept thinking over and over again, in her mind, 'Howie please come back to me'.

Penny sat there staring out the window trying to hide her tears from Bernadette and to remember the feeling of Leonard's arms around her, his smell and the way his hair felt in her fingers, when Bernadette broke her from her trance. "There they go, I'll follow. I just knew Howie was going to go with him." Bernadette and Penny then pulled out and began pursuing the van, with their men in it, into the night.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 - Speed and Stealth

It was just after dark, when Howard pulled into the alley, 3 blocks away from the area that was now secured by the Army with a barricaded perimeter around the scene. Howard had continued to hack into Colonel Turner's email and he probably knew almost as much about what was happening, at the scene, as the onsite commander did himself. They commenced the suit final checkout and then agonized through the long 10 minutes it took, even though they hurried, however eventually Leonard and suit were ready. They were done, so Howard put down his laptop then turned to open the large back doors of the van, when he felt the gloved hand on his shoulder. He slowly turned back around, now looking at Leonard's eyes through the open visor of the helmet, and it dawned on him this might the be the last time he ever saw him again.

"Howard, you have been a great friend and it has been an honor to know you. Sheldon has always been wrong, you are the best engineer in the world and I am proud you were my friend." The words from the amplified voice went straight to Howard's soul. "I just have one favor to ask you."

"Anything Leonard," Howard felt his eyes get wet.

"Howard you drive like mad and get out of here and save yourself. Then I want you to keep watch on Penny, comfort her, if this gets hard on her, and when see needs it, encourage her to find someone good to her and just make sure she is always okay. Will you do that for me?"

"Sure Leonard, I'll do that."

"Thanks, now open the door, like the Fantastic Four Thing said, 'Its clobberin time." Leonard said that with all the bravo he could muster, but in his heart he knew it was all words, he truly believed once he left Howard he would never see any of his friends again.

Howard opened the door and Leonard picked up the portable laser system chemical bags, that would power the laser, with its frame, that was strapped in a bag on his chest. He then stepped outside, however unlike last time, this time he was almost invisible in the night, Howard and Leonard had quickly painted the suit black with spray cans, before they left. Howard watched as Leonard quickly disappeared into the shadows, then stood there in conflict. He didn't want to leave, but he promised Leonard he would take care of Penny and how could he do that if he was dead. He had no doubt he would die if he stayed, just like Leonard, their chances were slim to none, but he would feel like a coward the rest of his life if he didn't stay to help his friend. He stood in the open back of the van truck conflicted until everything was made clear to him, Bernadette reached up and pulled his arm waking him from his thoughts.

Howard looked down and his eyes went wide, "What the hell are you doing here. You promised you'd leave." He had never been so mad at Bernadette in his life.

"Damm it, Howard Joel Wolowitz, you are not leaving me a widow. I signed on for better or worse, I guess I just didn't expect the worse so soon, but there is no way I am leaving you mister." Bernadette just stared up at her husband, daring him to say something.

Howard then looked at Penny, also standing there, he felt defeated, "You promised Leonard you'd leave, too."

"I can't Howard, I can't leave him. I walked out that room so he thought I left, but we followed you guys here. Howard, I love him and I can't live without him. If he dies today, then I die too, so what difference does it matter where I am."

Howard didn't know what to do, he didn't want his wife to die, with him, but he wanted to help Leonard, he hated himself, but his wife came first. "Come on, both of you, get in and lets go, Leonard wanted us to leave anyway."

"I'm not going Howard and you can't make me, leave your stuff and show me how to run it, so I can help him." Penny stood below the door with her arms folded, she was not leaving Leonard.

"Howie, we got to help him, you're the only one that can do it." Bernadette pleaded.

"I don't want you to die, Bernie. I can't let you die." Howard was almost in tears.

Bernadette stepped up into the truck, and grabbed he husband in a hug, "It's okay honey, as long as I'm with you, we'll be okay. We have to help Leonard."

Howard was breathing so hard he was almost hyperventilating, he loved his wife but why did she have to be so pig headed sometimes. He finally slowly gave up and nodded, he knew both of them so well, he knew Penny wouldn't budge, and he knew Bernadette wouldn't leave her or Leonard. "Both of you get in the truck."

Howard looked at Penny when she entered, "Well he did tell me to watch over you, so I guess I'm doing that." Penny looked at him and suddenly realized how serious he was really being.

"Can we give him real help from here?" Penny asked him.

"Yeah, we'll turn on the monitoring systems, keep tabs on him and be there if he needs us, but whatever you do don't say anything if I use the radio, okay?"

"Okay."

Howard then lead Penny and Bernadette into the truck and shut the doors, 5 minutes later they could see Leonard's progress to the building. Leonard was coming up to the military roadblocks and this is were everything was going to turn real, real fast. Penny and Bernadette stood there fascinated at the scenes on the TV screens in front of them, it was almost like watching a movie, but as Penny heard the breathing of the man in the suit, she knew it was no movie, it was Leonard. It was a few minutes before the scenes stopped moving as Leonard stopped, and they watched as he started to look back and forth, showing the soldiers and the roadblocks in front of his position.

Leonard looked at the street from the dark alley he was in. This street was one of the barrier lines the military set up to control the area, and if that wasn't bad enough, there were street lights everywhere, making sneaking across almost impossible. Almost impossible, the street lights were controlled by photo electric cells and Howard determined their targeting laser could fry their delicate circuits. Leonard took a deep breathe, he knew if this didn't work, they were sunk already, so he looked right at the light sensor on one of the street lights. "Targeting." The crosshairs came alive and he slightly moved his head to put them on the sensor.

"Targeting laser"

"Targeting laser, abort"

Leonard watched as the beam hit the sensor and the light winked off. "Abort"

"Targeting laser, aborted"

Leonard looked at the soldiers, a couple of them looking at the now off light, but then went back to talking to themselves.

Leonard looked at the next light, putting the crosshairs on the sensor. "Targeting laser"

"Targeting laser, abort"

The second light winked off. "Abort"

Leonard did this four more times, then watched the soldiers, they looked at the lights for a few minutes but went back to their work, one seemed to be on the radio, probably asking what was wrong or asking for portable lights, Leonard needed to hurry. He positioned himself so he was across from another dark alley on the other side of the barricade. Howard had instructed him that he had modified the thrusters too, instead of just boosting him into a jump, now they fired in deceleration, when he would land, to soften the landing. He was really hoping they worked right, because he was carrying about 100 pounds of laser equipment in the pack on his chest and almost 200 pounds of chemical packs with each arm.

"Thruster"

"Thruster armed…..abort"

Leonard took a deep breathe and prayed the gyros could compensate for the two portable chemical packs for the portable laser he was also carrying, in the jump. He pushed the trigger in his glove and held his breath, because except for initiating it he felt he had no control once the thrusters fired. Normally he felt he was part of the suit and it moved with him, but when the thrusters fired the suit shot up and he felt he was only along for the ride. He was use to sudden pulling of his body into the air, but this time the deceleration thrust caught him by surprise and scared him half to death as he tried to land on the other side in the alley. He was actually surprised when he landed so softly with the thruster decelerate and the cushioned boots he wore, it was also with a great relief that he found himself still standing with no one firing guns at him. He took one look back, to see a couple of soldiers pointing into the air, obviously they thought they saw something, so he figured he better get moving into the alley, the shadows quickly swallowing him up.

Penny and Bernadette had watched the whole thing on the screens in amazement, for the second time that night Penny felt everything was so unbelievable. Her and Bernadette's minds were reeling to what they were seeing, Leonard continued doing all these remarkable things, while Howard was monitoring suit systems and Leonard, acting like this was all normal routine. As they both turned their heads from the screens they both looked at each other, the same thought going through both their minds, 'Who were these men they were with?' What was happening couldn't be anymore amazing if it had been one of the guys silly science fiction movies, but they both knew this was real and they were actually living it.

The girls turned back to the screen and watched as Leonard was moving again. The picture suddenly started changing from the dark color scene in front of him to a reddish display, like an old black-and-white movie of the scene that was around him, then back again, worrying Penny immediately. "Howard, what is wrong with Leonard's camera?"

Howard never turned from his monitoring systems, but said in a very calm voice, "It is dark and he is having trouble seeing with normal vision, where he is moving, so he is flipping between normal vision and Infrared."

"Infrared?"

"A sort of night vision using heat."

"Oh." Penny didn't really understand, but Howard was not concerned, even calm, so everything must be okay and she just continued to watch.

Penny really didn't notice it specifically, but the deeper Leonard got to the site, the more she was becoming agitated. Penny wasn't the kind of person who could stand and watch, but she stood there helpless and watched as he went more and more into danger. She felt like a caged badger, straining to get out and take on the world, but just like that night in the Cheesecake Factory she was powerless and the longer it went on the deeper disheartened she got. She couldn't help the numbness that was creeping up on her as she leaned on the table, with white-knuckled fists, watching things play out with her Leonard and not being able to do a thing.

Things started to get brighter as Leonard moved towards his destination, the three buildings. He made one more turn and suddenly he had a view of everything, the three buildings, with the third lighted up with search lights. Leonard had been reasonably fine up to this point, maybe a little nervous, but now he felt scared as he looked at the building the terrorists occupied and all the soldiers around it. He could barely tear his eyes away from the scene to look at the other buildings, and especially the one at the other end of the three building chain, the dark one, the one that was his goal.

Bernadette and Penny saw what Leonard saw, they both saw the problem, and both of them didn't understand how Leonard could possibly get by all those soldiers. Even if he did, with all the lights, how would he get in without being seen, it seemed so impossible and they both looked at Howard.

"He can't get in there." It was a statement, not a question from Penny.

"He is not going by a way you can see." Howard was still calm as ice which infuriated Penny.

"Howard, tell him to come back, he can't get in there." Penny's voice cracked in frustration. The pent-up energy in her trying to get out.

"He is not going in that building. Watch."

Both girls turned their heads back to the screens, confused as they watched Leonard look over at the third building, the one farthest away from the one the terrorists were in. Then they watched as Leonard started to move towards it, taking an obvious sneaking approach towards its far side. Penny looked up at Bernadette who looked back shrugging her shoulders, neither of them had any idea where Leonard was going or what the guys were up to.

Penny felt helpless watching as Leonard moved around towards the dark building. Again the strain of not being able to do anything was getting to her, "Howard is there anything we can do to help him."

Her question made Howard turn from his monitoring screen, "Penny, he thinks we are safe in Oxnard, if I contact him he is going to know that is not true and worry. Everything right now is going to plan, really it is, so unless he has some system failures or actually needs help, the best thing we can do is just sit and watch."

It wasn't the answer she had wanted and it did nothing to alleviate the constant fear she was feeling inside for Leonard. However, Penny looked at Howard and could see he was telling her the truth, so she just nodded, "Okay", then turned back to the screens. The feeling of helplessness was eating at her, seeing Leonard getting closer to danger making her want to scream. She just wanted to run after him, take him away from all this, hold him and love him and be with him forever and ever.

Bernadette watched Penny as she wiped another tear from her eye, she had been doing that more and more as Leonard got deeper and deeper into danger, and she knew there was nothing she could do for her friend. She then looked over at Howard, reaching out to touch his arm, and wondered if they would be together tonight, the thought sending a chill down her spine. But just like her friend, there was nothing she could do, they had to stay, they had to see this through and Howard's small smile, as he looked back at her, gave her the courage to go on.


	13. Chapter 13

**THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DEATH AND VIOLENCE SO IS RATED "M".**

Chapter 13 - Search and Avoid

The next barrier, Leonard had to overcome, was not a barricade like the previous one, it was getting in the building without getting caught. The building the terrorists were in, was one of three identical buildings in a row, the terrorists having the end building in the chain. Their building was impregnable so Leonard needed an easier route, he needed to get in the building on the other end of that chain. The building the terrorists occupied was a hotel and the next two buildings were office buildings, that were currently evacuated except for military personnel. The building next to the hotel was filled with military personnel, was all lit up and would be impossible to enter from the street, but the building on the other side was empty too, dark, and only guarded by military personnel. That building was the weak link they had found and Leonard's goal, he needed to get into its parking garage.

Leonard moved up to the building staying behind all the beautiful trees and shrubbery that were in place to decorate the building. He then watched the patrols for about 10 minutes before he figured how long he had to get to a back access door that would lead him inside. He was scared and worried, but he knew he had to do it, so after the patrol went around the corner, he moved as fast as he could to the door. The door was heavy steel and barred, but with the suit Leonard yanked it open, the steel door frame groaning in protest before the door lock finally broke, he then slipped inside, pulling the door closed behind him.

"My God Howie." Bernadette looked from the monitor screen to Howard, her face in awe, every time Leonard did something, it was more amazing than the previous time. "You guys built that, it is amazing.?"

Penny looked at him too, "Leonard is really a superman in that thing."

"Not really, he is in a mobile suit with an enhanced mechanical exoskeleton, that is bulletproof, not bomb proof." he looked at them both again, and thought came back into his mind, the one he had been thinking since he let them in the truck. 'They needed to leave, things were getting more and more serious fast'. He steeled himself for the exchange, "This has gone on enough, I don't want you guys to die. Please girls leave now, leave fast."

"I'm am not leaving Leonard." It was unarguable statement and Penny glared at him, daring him to say another word. There was nothing from heaven or earth that would make her leave and she even wished she was with him, following him, as he tried to do this impossible task. "Again Howard, show me how to operate this stuff, you and Bernadette can then leave."

"Howie, we can't leave him, you are the only one that can help him and I'm not leaving you." Bernadette leaned over and kissed her husband. "I love you Howie, but some things or people are worth dying for." Howard looked at her for a couple seconds, a frown on his face, then he nodded reluctantly. So much for being the tough guy, as Howard accepted their fate.

Penny watched them, and the comfort they gave each other, ashamed for feeling so jealous she couldn't hold Leonard right now, kiss him, and tell him she loved him. The thought of being without Leonard was now unbearable to her, she really did love him, she wanted him in her life forever, if they lived through this, she was never going to hold back on him again. Penny didn't ever want to take a chance again they would break up again or something would drive them apart, she knew she wanted to marry him, and now there was no hesitation in her thoughts. She would ask him if his offer from months before was still open and if not she would propose to him, her mind was now made up, Leonard was hers and she was not letting him go.

Leonard moved down the stairs and into the parking garage complex, he was lucky, the military had sealed off the parking garage and didn't have anyone inside. He cautiously walked across the garage to a storage room on the other side, trying to make as little noise as the suit would allow, the echoing sounds of him moving through the garage making him cringe. He never realized he had been holding his breath, the last few feet to the storage room, until he got inside and was gasping for air, he was sweaty and had been so worried. He just wanted to stand there, for a little while, and get his senses back, but he didn't have time and it was probably better he didn't think what he was doing, otherwise he would be terrified. He took the framework from the bag on his chest, then started to assemble the same motorized jig, the same one he used to make the Super Kevlar material sheets, attaching the motorized laser last.

Howard and Leonard had found a weakness it the buildings that they thought could be exploited. All three buildings were built, one after another, so they were almost exactly the same, with parking garages, that were larger in area then the floor plan of the buildings. It was a method of making them stand up better to earthquakes, the bases being bigger than the building itself and it meant that the underground garages shared common walls, and since they were all the same, the storage rooms against the walls were all in the same place, just on the other side of the wall he was at now. The building plans, Howard called up, allowed Leonard to determine the laser power and beam duration for them to calculate what was needed to burn through the wall to the storage room in the next garage. There was some risk, but the whole plan was a big risk, from the beginning, so as Leonard assembled the equipment, he just hoped they had some luck.

Leonard hooked up the first two chemical packs to the intermix bag, then connected the electron collector to that. Once satisfied the chemicals were connected safely he hooked of the discharge capacitor then wired that to the laser, through the current regulator. It wasn't a pretty set up and there were heavy wires exposed everywhere, which he needed to make sure didn't short or contact him. He then checked the wiring again, going over every circuit and connection, he had to make sure this worked, he couldn't make any mistakes.

There was only two things he had to do to make it all work, open the intermix value for the chemicals and then when the laser fired, after the capacitor started its discharge, start the motor to the frame. The laser would travel for a set time around the loop of the frame cutting a sort of doorway into the walls, big enough for him to squeeze through, if everything worked. The big risk was that this was a one shot deal, once he started it, it wouldn't stop until the electricity generated by the chemical reaction energy died out. He stood there for a second, took a deep breathe then hit the chemical intermix, then waited the long seconds for the beam to start, so he could hit the laser movement motor start. It happened fast and it was brighter then he thought, so he quickly dropped the darkening visor on his helmet and just stood there and watched. The wait for laser to work, probably the longest few seconds of his life.

It took 20 seconds and Leonard almost panicked when the motor hit the end and the laser was still on. It only lasted a second, but he knew it would burn through the storage room walls on the other side and across the garage, maybe destroying their whole plan. So after laser shut down he just stood there looking at the laser and frame, his mind trying to process that the whole US Army could be waiting for him on the other side. However he had no other choice, this was their only plan, so with the strength of the suit he pushed down the cut concrete and looked through the opening to the other side.

The beam did burn through the storage room and flashed across the length of the garage, two inches above the floor, until it hit the wall of the other storage room, burning a small hole in it. The intense light from the beam, was noticed by a couple of soldiers who saw what they thought was a flash, so they walked over to see the cause. Their goal, going to where they thought they saw the flash to investigate. "I think the flash came from around here."

They both looked around, frustrated that they could see no cause and were about to call their superior, until one of the soldiers looked up. "Oh, that is probably it, see the spotlight above here is burnt out. It must have flashed when it burnt out." The other soldier agreed and they both moved back to their post, again calmly taking about girls and dates they missed because of this duty.

After Leonard pushed the wall in, he walked into the storage room, stopping for a minute to listen. He heard nothing so he peeked out the door, there was no one standing outside waiting for him, he actually couldn't believe it, their plan was working and for the first time since this started he felt a little confident. But his confidence was only fleeting, he went back and grabbed his equipment, then peered back into the building's parking garage, there was another wall he had to go through and he had to get to it. He looked around the garage, the soldiers were at all the entrances preventing everyone from entering except other soldiers, therefore, they were looking out and not in, so maybe they won't see him.

However there were a lot of them and as he watched a few crossed the garage, he was starting to have doubts. There was too much light and too many of them and the other storage room was on the complete other side, things were stacking against him, his felt luck was now dissolving with his chances of success. Therefore it was a surprised, when he heard the yelling, "Chows here!" then saw all the soldiers move to a truck near the front to get food. It was the break Leonard needed, a distraction made just for him, so he slipped out of the storage room and made for the other side storage room.

Leonard moved quietly around the back wall, trying to stay in the shadows, while he made his way to the opposite storage room. He would catch glimpses of the soldiers eating and each time he saw them his heart would beat faster. He felt took forever, he fought to overcome the fear, but finally he made it and slipped inside the door. Once inside he leaned against the wall, he was so tired from stress and his mind started to wander as he wished he could just lay in bed and relax, his thoughts going to Penny remembering how she use to lay by his side. He shook his head, he needed to move on, he was thinking too much, so he started to set up the laser again, he couldn't waste time.

"He made it!" Howard had a big smile on his face.

"Howard you act surprised?" Penny just looked at him in disbelief.

Howard shook his head. "This was one of the big risks, if the laser could burn a path for him, we really didn't know if it would work or work right."

Penny stared at him in astonishment. "You guys were just taking huge chances with Leonard's life!"

"Penny, remember this was Leonard's idea. I tried to talk him out of it."

Penny slowly nodded, taking each breath carefully, defeated. "I know."

"Penny you have to calm down, it doesn't get any better from now on, only worse."

Penny slowly nodded and leaned against the side of the van, unable to say a thing. She just kept thinking, 'Leonard was risking his life, this was impossible and the odds were all against, what did he think he was, one those heroes in his comic books. Damm him, damm him.' Tears formed in her eyes.

"Penny you okay?" Bernadette looked with concern at her friend, she could see she wasn't taking Howard's words well.

Tears were falling down Penny's cheeks and her voice cracked, "Bernadette if we survive this, I'm going to burn all his comic books, so help me." Bernadette just looked at her friend with sympathy.

Leonard was set up again, however now the doubt wasn't there, he just had to worry about what was on the other side. He started the chemical mix and when the beam appeared he started the laser motor, like he did before. Leonard didn't know the results would be different, because when the beam travel ended and the beam burnt through the storage room, there was a terrorist walking in the wrong place at the wrong time. His movement caused him to walk across the area the beam appeared, slicing his foot completely off, during the half second it was on. Blood poured from the amputated limb, the man screamed from the pain drawing the other terrorists in the garage, the problem for them was they didn't know how it happened, even the man it happened to didn't understand what happened to him.

Leonard went through the opening again then to the door of the storage room in the garage to the building held by the terrorists. He peeked outside to see several men standing around a man screaming while someone tried to help him. He didn't know what the distraction was, but he decided to take an advantage of it, slipping out of the room and moving along the wall till her found a door with stairs to the ground floor. It was easier for him to move now that he wasn't carrying anything and he could still hear the man screaming as he closed the door behind him to head up the stairs.

The terrorists didn't know what to do, the man laid dead at their feet, he had gone into shock, then died from loss of blood, The problem was no one could figure what happened, it was crazy, his foot being cut off in the middle of the garage, with no one or nothing around. They reported to their leader, what happened and that everything was still secure, being told to try and find out what happened. The men shrugged and looked around, each one of them now nervous, because if something like that could happen to one man, it could happen to another.

Leonard made it to the lobby and looked around from a shadowed doorway, seeing a couple terrorists near the doors of the building behind cover. He had to avoid being noticed, therefore, he started to make his way to where the stairs were, located in the plan, while trying to keep furniture and counters between him and the terrorists, so he wasn't seen. He had just slipped behind the hotel front desk when he suddenly stopped, the sight behind the desk, surprised him, making his stomach go sick.

Penny, Bernadette and Howard were surprised just like Leonard and gasped at the scene from Leonard's helmet camera. There were three bodies laying there, peppered with bullet holes, blood everywhere, and they were all young, in their 20s and 30s. Penny watch as the camera centered on one of the bodies, a blonde girl in her 20's, them she saw Leonard's gloved hand reach to touch her. The girl was obviously dead, her skin pale her eyes lifeless, but Penny knew Leonard had to confirm it, Penny knew by the way he was acting. Leonard was seeing her, he was seeing Penny, and he had to make sure this Penny was not alive. She also knew, it was hurting him, Leonard was that kind of guy, this was eating his insides, he never had to experience this before, and she wished she could hold him in her arms and tell him everything was going to be okay.

Leonard pulled his hand away, the girl was really dead, he couldn't believe it, she so reminded him of Penny, his heart broke for her. He saw the engagement on her finger, her shoulder length blonde hair, her innocent face and suddenly inside he changed. He thought about the Cheesecake Factory and how he could never let something like this happen to Penny, the man he killed tried to do this to his Penny. The Cheesecake Factory would have been littered with bodies, like this, if he didn't go there, what he did was right and he saved those innocent peoples lives, he saved Penny's life, 'IT WAS RIGHT' his mind shouted. Leonard now felt no remorse anymore, what he did was right, he didn't care what anyone said to him, he didn't care if he went to jail, he was right. All doubt about how he was going to deal with these terrorists was gone, they killed innocent young girls, they just lost any sympathy Leonard had for them, anyone of them who tried to stop him was going to be neutralized and if they died, well so be it.

The fury built in him and he looked out to spot them, they were hidden behind furniture, and he hated them beyond belief. "Targeting" the crosshairs came alive.

"No, Leonard no." Howard said to himself.

"What's happening." Penny was on edge everything happening with Leonard tearing at her heart.

"No Leonard, move on, don't do this." Howard said reaching to turn on the microphone.

Leonard had the cross hairs on the first terrorist's head, the man needed to die, he had forfeited his life when he did the thing behind him. However, Leonard was always a peaceful man and the longer he stared the more his mind settled down, until his mission took his thoughts back over. A small smile formed on his face, if he really wanted to hurt them, he needed to defeat them, take away their power, stop the bomb, the Army would do the rest. "Targeting abort." the crosshairs blinked off.

"Thank God." Howard moved his finger from the microphone button, then looked at Penny. "It is alright, things are back to normal."

"What happened?" Penny croaked out.

"He almost over reacted, he just forgot what he was suppose to do, he is okay now."

Penny just nodded, then looked again at the screen, Leonard was moving again, and her heart was racing. It was basically a whisper, it was only for herself and him, "Please Leonard." Howard and Bernadette never heard a word.

Leonard slipped over to the stairs and closed the door softly behind him, never alerting the terrorists in the lobby, who were ignorant that they almost died. He moved up the stairs with as little noise as he could and came to the 2nd floor door, peaking in the window, seeing a terrorist guard sitting in a chair, his back to the door, and suddenly discovering he didn't know what to do. He just watched for 10 minutes and observed as the man reported to someone every 5 minutes, now realizing that his wandering from floor to floor looking for the bomb was going to harder than he thought. Leonard backed away from the window and leaned against the wall, he was confused and tired, saying to himself, out loud. "Now what do I do?" He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard Howard's voice.

"Tin Man, this is base."

"Base, I thought you left."

"I couldn't leave you alone, pal."

Leonard felt a wave of relief, he wasn't alone anymore. "Have you been watching my progress?"

"Yes, I've seen everything."

Leonard almost asked him if he saw the young girl, but stopped himself. "Base you then saw the guard and the radio contact. I can't stop at every floor and take out the guard then search the place. As soon as they loose communication, they will know something is up. Base I am open to any suggestions you have."

Howard stood there a minute in thought. What should they do?

"Howard, I've seen a lot of your action movies and in every one of them the bad guys tried to protect their plan, so wouldn't they try and protect something like that with more than one person?" Penny had been racking her brain trying to think of anything to help.

"Howie, Penny's right, there would probably be more guards on the floor it is on."

"That makes sense. I'll tell Leonard." Howard keyed up the mike. "Tin Man"

"Go ahead Base."

"There is a possibly that the guards on the subject floor would be greater to account for what they are guarding."

'Of Course', Leonard thought, 'More men to protect the bomb', "Roger base, that is a better idea, that I have come up with. I am going to move up and check each floor."

Leonard then noticed the time on his head's up display, it was after 10 PM, he had wasted too much time and now there was less than 2 hours. He had used up part of the 3 hour buffer they were going to give the military, they needed to tell them now. "Base, you need to notify the military."

Howard froze for a moment, then looked at the time, he had not been watching it, he had been too engrossed in Leonard's progress. Howard wanted to tell Leonard they could wait, but he knew they waited too long already. "Roger Tin Man, sending a message now." Howard already had the message made up, so he just hit send and watched it go.

"Tin Man, message is gone."

"Okay, base I'm going to check out the other floors."

Penny had watched the whole thing in confusion, but the way Howard acted made her feel like something bad just happened. "What did you just do?"

Howard's first instinct was to lie to her, but they were all in this together now, so she should know the truth. "We found out the bomb is on a timer and is going off at midnight. The military has a plan to bomb the building, destroying the terrorists and the bomb, so it doesn't go off. I sent them message telling them about the timer so they could initiate their plan before midnight."

Penny stared at Howard in disbelief. "But Leonard is in the building."

"Yes, I know."

Penny was now hysterical, "NO! Call him back, tell him to leave, hurry!"

"Penny he knows what is happening."

"NO HOWARD NO!" Penny started to head to the microphone. Bernadette grabbed her and Howard stepped in front of her to block her.

"Penny, he has some time, it will take them some time to send the jets, he knows that."

"NO HOWARD NO!" Penny was sobbing and fell to the floor on her knees, "NO PLEASE NO!"

Bernadette knelt next to her and held her in her arms. "Penny he still has some time, he knows what to look for, nothing is certain yet." Penny sobbed in Bernadette's arms, she just felt like she was dying.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 - Certain Suicide

Colonel Turner had a military laptop he used to get orders and submit situation reports, so when he saw the email icon light up with a new message, he immediately opened it to see if it had anything to do with the situation they were now involved in. The first thing he noticed was an picture attachment labeled 'warhead', so opened the picture and his eyes went wide. Turner read the email, feeling like his worse fears had come true and after he was done, he immediately called Wolowitz from the number on the email.

Howard was looking down at Penny, as Bernadette held her, he couldn't not help feeling sorry for her, he had noticed a change in her, it seemed her concern for Leonard was more than just a girlfriend, if he didn't know better it would seem like she was bonded to him. She was acting more like someone who wanted a future with Leonard and he wished Leonard knew how she felt about right now.

However, his thoughts of Penny and Leonard were interrupted when his phone rang, he had actually expected the call. "Wolowitz here."

"Mr. Wolowitz is email and picture you sent me true?"

"Yes Colonel. I ran it through a special program at the university that can determine what is on the other side of picture if there are reflections."

"How did you get the picture to analyze?"

"I hacked your email account."

Turner nodded to himself, he thought as much, "You're in trouble you know."

"I know."

"What is the confidence level on this."

"The program rates it at over 90 percent. We had a very good reflection, so I think it is pretty accurate."

"Okay, thanks, this helps a lot. Let me know immediately if you find out anything more." The information Turner now had was extremely important and he very appreciative of the engineer's dedication. "Wolowitz, you're not in that much trouble, just ask next time." Turner reassured Howard.

"Yes sir, I will….thanks."

Turner hung up, then pulled out his military phone, he needed to forward the information to the General, they needed to act fast, "Flash priority, get me General Owens at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB)."

General Owens was the situation commander, while Turner was the on scene commander, both of them had served in the Middle East, both had been in combat and both knew and trusted each other. Owens was really lucky Turner was in the area, when this happened, Turner had all clearances and experience for this kind of situation and Owens immediately put him in charge at the scene. The Edwards AFB command post sergeant handed Owens the phone, "Flash call from Colonel Turner, sir."

Owens knew this was serious. "Turner what is happening?"

"Sir, I had the picture of the bomb analyzed by one of the scientists at Cal Tech and he used some special software they had. He is cleared and does work for DoD, so I consulted him earlier in the day. The software is able to look on the back side of objects using reflections and complex software algorithms. I have sent you a picture of what they found, it is a timer set to go off at midnight."

"Damm, stand by Turner." Owens opened his email and saw the picture, his blood ran cold. "How reliable is this Turner?"

"Sir the man who did the analysis is really good and has been working successful Army projects for years. He said they had a good reflection and the confidence is over 90 percent."

Owens silently nodded his head to himself. "Turner, the president has given me authority to strike, so I am releasing the birds. They will contact you when they start their bomb run, so you have about 30 minutes, get you men in their MOPP (**M**ission **O**riented **P**rotective **P**osture) gear before that."

"Yes sir. Sir I'm going to release half my men to a fall back position, to decrease risk of exposure."

"On Site Commanders discretion Colonel." Owens trusted Turner to do what was right.

"Thank you Sir."

"Good luck Turner." They broke their connection.

-Tin Man-

Leonard had gone up to the third floor and carefully peeked through the small window in the door. There was another single guard sitting in a chair with his back to the door, just like the guard on the second floor. Leonard backed off and headed up to the fourth floor, a task that was not as easy as it sounded in the suit. His boots were too large for the stairs so he had to take each step carefully and the he actually had to exert himself to move up the steps more then if he was walking up them without the suit. By the time he reached the fourth floor he was sweating, but that was only an after thought for him, he was running out of time.

-Tin Man-

The flight line of Edwards AFB, had been busy all day, first receiving the fighters, then servicing them and loading them with weapons. They were F-15E fighter bombers, brought in specially for this mission, large two man aircraft that could easily go to Los Angeles and back with internal fuel. Now men ran around the big fighters as two of F-15Es spooled up their engines, they had been sitting there all evening, with crews in them, so they could airborne in minutes. General Owens orders for the mission changed the waiting planes and crews to soldiers with a mission and now everyone on the Edwards flight line was working their hardest to get the planes airborne as soon as possible.

The military picked these aircraft because they where the most effective aircraft for deploying smart weapons in the Air Force inventory and the only fighter aircraft capable of carrying the 5000 pound earth penetrating laser guided smart bomb. There were now two of them with engines running, a third loaded plane on standby in case one of the others planes had to abort, and as everyone on the flight line watched the aircraft were given permission to taxi.

-Tin Man-

Leonard had just peaked into the fourth floor door window, finding another guard, sitting in a chair with his back to the door. Something was now nagging at his mind, all the guards seemed relaxed and all didn't seem to be concerned with the stairwell, as a matter of fact the were all staying close to the stairwell. It would make more sense if they were on the other end of the hall or walking the hall, but they weren't doing that. "Tin Man to Base."

"Go ahead Tin Man."

"Base have you seen the last three floors, the guards are all positioned the same."

"Roger Tin Man that is curious."

"Base I was wondering how many terrorists could be here…."

"Roger Tin Man, I was doing a little calculation and I estimate they must have at least 30-40 people."

"That is a lot of people to agree to commit suicide."

Howard looked at Penny, she was now standing again but she was looking at him with extreme concern in her eyes. She hadn't been taking the last 20 minutes very well, Leonard mentioning suicide was helping any either, but of course he didn't know the girls were here and Howard couldn't risk telling him. "Roger Tin Man, that is quite a lot, however if…."

Leonard finished the sentence for Howard, "If they didn't know about the warhead, they might think they are going to escape."

"I agree Tin Man, I bet they don't know. That must be why there was a demand for their members in jail to be released, it is a bluff by the leaders to make their men think they might survive."

"Roger Base, that means they always intended to set it off, they never planned on doing anything else. Base did the military send the planes?"

"I think so Tin Man. It has been 20 minutes since I notified military commander, they should be in the air by now."

Howard looked at Penny again, tears were coming from her eyes and Bernadette had her arms around her, again. Howard was concerned, if something happened to Leonard, they might also loose Penny too, she was a complete emotional mess and he didn't know if she would be able to recover from Leonard's death.

"Okay Base, so we agree. I'm going up to the next floor, maybe I can be a little faster now, knowing what they are doing."

-Tin Man-

It was only a few minutes since both planes had lifted off the runway at Edwards, afterburners lighting up the runway, climbing into the night sky and heading west. Each plane was loaded with two of these 5000 pound bombs were packed with a new explosive, which created more damage than previous explosives. The plan was to hit the building with two bombs the first penetrating to the base of the building and the other to the middle of the building from entering the top. It would be total destruction and it would happen in about a second, the building would be almost vaporized and everything in it. The second F-15E flew with the first because he was his wingman and he was also there in case the first couldn't accomplish the mission. The military knew the destructive force of the two bombs would leave a gaping hole in the place the building once stood and it would kill everyone inside, so since there was approximately 140 hostages inside, the President had to order their use. Unfortunately the choice was both hard and logical, the bomb would kill thousands so the President gave General Owens the order to stop the detonation of the nuclear device at all costs..It was now less than 30 minutes before all hell broke loose and Leonard was still looking for the right floor.


	15. Chapter 15

**OKAY JUST A SHORT UPDATE, SINCE IT IS NEW YEARS. HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE AND CONGRATULATIONS TO KALEY AND RYAN.**

**WARNING**

**DEATH AND VIOLENCE IN THIS CHAPTER.**

**Chapter 15 - So Little Time**

Leonard continued his search, going up to the next floor, and found one guard again. The next floor was the same, and each floor after that, the same, he was really having no luck. Going up all the stairs was also putting a strain on his breathing, so by the time he got to the 9th floor, he needed his inhaler. Howard had thought of that too, Leonard turned his head to a tube built into the lower left of the helmet, it was attached to his inhaler that was located in the pocket in the front of the suit. He brought up his gloved hand to the outside of the pocket and squeezed the inhaler inside, resulting in a steam of its contents going up the tube to his mouth and lungs. It wasn't as good as putting the inhaler against his mouth, but it was good enough, and after about a minute, he went to the 9th floor door to look in again finding only one guard.

Leonard looked at the clock on the heads up display, it had taken him ten minutes to get this far, it felt so much longer, but there were 6 more floors and at the rate he was going, he wouldn't have much time, if any to find and do something even when he got to the right floor. Leonard had a sinking feeling that he was not going to make it and he suddenly felt tired, thinking maybe he should just stop trying. His mind told him it would be better to just sit down and wait for the end, at least he could spend his remaining minutes thinking about the good things he once had in his life, like Penny. The thought of Penny however put a spark back in him and he started up the next flight of stairs, deciding to keep trying till the end.

Penny had been watching the clock and Leonard's progress, the same sinking feeling was overcoming her just like Leonard felt. There wasn't enough time, he wasn't going to make it, her mind ran that over and over like a broken record. She tried to will the clock to go slower and Leonard to go faster, but nothing happened, she couldn't help him. Penny in one desperate last attempt looked at Howard, "Please Howard tell him to leave the building, Please."

Bernadette looked at Howard too, "He's not going to make it is he?"

Howard didn't really know what to say, the desperation in Penny's eyes and the sympathy in the eyes of his wife. "I don't know." He then looked directly at Penny, and softly said, "He wouldn't leave anyway."

Penny looked down towards the floor, her heart felt crushed, she really just wanted to be with him when the end came, just to hold him one more time. She stood there for over a minute then turned back to the screen putting her hand along the side of it, like it was Leonard's face. "I love you Leonard," she whispered and tears dripped down her face.

Leonard made it to the 10th floor and peeked through the window, then blinked a couple times to make sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, there were three guards in the hallway.

"Base are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Tim Man, Roger, this looks like a prime spot for the item."

"Okay, I don't have much time so here it goes Base." 

"Please be careful Leonard." Penny croaked out barely above a whispered. Howard and Bernadette looked at her, both putting their hands on her back, she was actually trembling.

Leonard took another quick look through the door window again, to determine each of the men's position, he was lucky they were all three together. He then took a breath, opened the door and walked through, he was hoping for surprise, he got better, the men stood there in shock at the sight of him, Leonard however wasn't in shock, so he attacked. The closet man Leonard just swung his arm at him, slamming the man's head against, then through the wall, he fell like a rag doll. The second closet man was in a chair, so Leonard lifted his foot stomping the man and the chair, shattering the metal chair, the metal parts penetrating the mans body in several critical areas, he was not getting up either. The third man started to react, bring up his AK-47 assault rifle to shoot Leonard, but he had waited too long, as soon as it was level, Leonard pushed his arm out against the barrel, using all the power the suit had, pushing the whole gun into the mans body, until it came out the other side and he fell to the ground.

Penny, Bernadette and Howard, watched in silence, it had happened so fast, that it almost seemed like they were watching a TV show and not something real that just happened. Howard realized Leonard knew he was watching, because Leonard didn't turn the helmet camera to the bodies, for very long, after it was over.

Bernadette said it for them all, she looked at Howard then Penny, "Oh My God."

It was a couple seconds later when Leonard came back on the radio. "Okay Base, Search help would be appreciated. I'm in sort of a hurry."

**-Tin Man-**

The F-15Es had reached their weapons release altitude of 30,000 feet, high enough that their over flight would not be heard as long as they stayed subsonic, as they flew overhead. They could see Los Angles below and were now lining up for a practice pass over the target to verify they could make the weapon release pass successfully. The pilot used his night vision goggles and RADAR to pick out landmarks, while the Weapons officer, scanned the ground with the aircraft's targeting pod, searching for the target for their two bombs.

Turner was sitting in his command vehicle when the sergeant notified him of the fighter aircraft status. "Sir those aircraft out of Edwards are making a practice run and are 5 minutes out. Their call signs are 'Hammer 1' and 'Hammer 2'."

Turner looked at the man. "Okay, let me know what they report after the practice pass. Also, give the order to Company B to begin their movement to location 'Charlie' and await orders."

The sergeant nodded, "Yes Sir." and relayed Turners orders. Company B, almost 200 men and vehicles now left the area to location 'Charlie' over a half mile from Turner's position, it would take them less than five minutes because the streets were empty. Turner had also secretly emptied the building next to their Terrorists building, only now having men around the perimeter, because he didn't really know if the second building would stand when the first building was destroyed.

**-Tin Man-**

"Tin Man, use the InfraRed (IR) scanner in your helmet, once you switch to IR you should be able to just stand outside the rooms and see if there is a high heat source in them, that should be the bomb. Just go one room at a time, it should really show up as a bright spot."

"Okay base, moving now."

"Howie, how are his chances?"

"Finding it are good, if it is on this floor. The bomb should be a high heat emitting source, because of the material it uses. Getting to it before they set it off, is a crap shoot." Howard looked at the girls again. "He is going to find it, then go in, there is nothing else we can do for him. Please you girls need to leave now, in the next few minutes you can be miles away."

"No Howard, I'm not leaving! If Leonard dies here, I die here!" Penny just folded her arms over her chest in defiance. Howard could see she was too far gone, he wouldn't be able to remove her without her going berserk, and she was stronger than him. She was a mess, her face streaked from crying and he could see a slight trembling in her hands. No she was never going to leave, he knew that for certain. 

Bernadette looked at her husband, and she shook her head, she was not leaving either. Howard looked at the floor and then at the monitor, he hoped their deaths were as fast as Leonard's was going to be.


	16. Chapter 16

**WARNING DEATH AND VIOLENCE IN THIS CHAPTER.**

**Chapter 16 - The Prize**

Leonard walked away from the now dead men, he had to find the bomb, so he walked to outside the first room and turned on Howard's IR heat scanner, the room was empty. Leonard went to the second, doing the same thing and found it empty too, he continued down hall checking each room and was beginning to think maybe he made a mistake on this floor, until he saw the heat signatures. There were two men, but that was not what got his attention, it was the small item that's signature was hotter than theirs sitting in the middle of the room, it had to be the bomb.

**-Tin Man-**

The F-15Es completed their practice run and had identified the target, the crews feeding all the attack coordinates into their aircraft computers. The planes represented a new generation of fighter, they used Multipurpose Displays, TV screens to visualize their instruments and deliver their weapons. The screen gave the Weapons Officer a detailed view of the building from 30,000 feet with the aircraft targeting pod, he was even able to see a couple terrorists on the roof, and he was able to mark it with his targeting laser to provide the Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates into the aircraft computer, the plane now knowing what the target coordinates were. The GPS coordinates and the laser designating system would make sure there would be a direct hit when they circled around Los Angeles for their actual bomb run. Hammer 1 radioed the on scene commander, call sign 'Knight', letting him know everything was a go and waited for the code work to execute.

Turner took the radio microphone from the sergeant, he mentally went over if he was ready, his men were in their suits, the B Company was at position Charlie and his other men were positioned away from the target. He had covered it all, now he had only one other job to do, so he keyed the mike, "Hammer 1, this is Knight, code word is 'CHECKMATE', I repeat 'CHECKMATE'."

"Roger Knight, Hammer 1 confirms 'CHECKMATE'. Good luck down there. Hammer 1 out."

The F-15Es made a long swing around Los Angeles to come in again from the east along the route they just practiced, they were now less than 10 minutes away from weapon release.

**-Tin Man-**

For Leonard, now came the part of the plan that depended on timing and he suddenly felt he hadn't practiced enough, he had to surprise and overwhelm the two men inside in less than a second and his chances of succeeding were slim to none. Leonard uncovered the four light sources on his shoulders and hit the switch on his glove, one of the laser chemical packs would now fire them. They were another of Howard's additions, they were called dazzlers and one could temporary blind an auditorium of people with just one unit and one shot. Leonard had four units and they would fire three times each, his life and everyone in a mile radius of ground zero, depended upon it. This was it, he was running out of time, "Laser Energize"

"Ten…..Abort"

"Nine….Abort" Leonard positioned himself in front of the door, so he could kick it in.

"Eight…..Abort" Leonard took in a big breath.

"Seven…..Abort" Leonard tried to calm himself so he wouldn't make a mistake.

"Six…..Abort" Leonard put himself in the proper stance.

"Five….Abort" Leonard picked the spot on the door to kick it in.

"Four….Abort" Leonard pulled down the special visor for the helmet to protect against the Dazzlers.

"Three….Abort" Leonard made one last check on the heads up display that everything was working properly.

"Two….Abort" Time seemed to slow down.

"One…..Abort" Leonard kicked the door with all the force the suit could muster and it came of it's hinges and went like a projectile through the hotel room.

"Ready" He stepped through the doorway, before the door hit the floor.

Leonard yelled "Fire". The Dazzlers went off at once, blinding anyone inside, then they fired two more times for insurance. Leonard was blind too with the visor down, so he pushed the visor up, he had to work quick and he didn't know what expect.

Inside the room it had been hell, the first terrorist had been too close to the door and when it hit him, it destroyed half the bones in his body, including his skull, he was out of the picture. The second terrorist had held the firing switch, but the explosive movement of the door disoriented him and Dazzler's discharged blinded him, the second discharge causing extreme pain, making him involuntarily drop the firing switch to put his hands to his eyes, the third discharge burnt his retinas and he screamed in pain.

Leonard walked to the man standing and grabbed him, throwing him at the window and through, then he went for the second man and stopped, there was too much blood for him to be alive.

**-Tin Man-**

The light that came out of the curtained window was so intense that everyman, including Turner thought the bomb had gone off and they just waited to die. This horrible feeling of impending death lasted several agonizing seconds before they started to realize they were still alive. However, the surprises didn't stop as they saw something fly through the same window, drop 10 stories and land with a disgusting plop on the ground. Turner quickly grabbed his binoculars to find that object was a man, he thought, 'What the hell is happening?"

The F-15E crews also saw the light from the target area, they too thinking it was the bomb, both pilots turning off their heading and going to full afterburner to avoid the shock wave. However after the seconds passed the crews became confused too, and they wondered if anyone was alive down there. "Hammer 1 to Knight, come in Knight."

Turner looked at the microphone again thinking 'What is happening?'. "Hammer 1 this is Knight."

"Knight, we just saw a bright flash at target, please advise"

Turner, thought for a moment, 'Like I know what happened.' "Hammer 1, we are investigating, standby for orders."

"Hammer 1 standing by." The two F-15E began to circle again over Los Angeles awaiting orders.

Suddenly it was quiet and Leonard's eyes then went to the bomb, it was sitting on a coffee table in the middle of the room. It was fascinating and terrifying, at the same time, and he didn't even realize he was breathing heavily as he looked at it. "Base are you seeing this?" Leonard got as close as he dared, staring straight at the bomb, hoping Howard could see.

"Roger Tin Man, give me a moment."

Penny swallowed as she looked at the monitor screen, she couldn't believe how small it was, and Leonard now had it and they were all still alive. 'Leonard had saved her again, he had saved Los Angles, My God, he was a Super Hero', she thought, she was in awe of him.

"Okay Tin Man, I looked at the picture Colonel Turner showed us and what you are showing me, all they did was short circuit the firing circuits and added a firing switch, so pull it out."

"Base pull what out?"

"Tin Man, all of it, pull every wire you see."

Leonard took a deep breath, and put his gloved hand into the bomb, grabbing a handful of wires, then closing his eyes, he yanked. He stood there motionless for a few seconds, then looked at his hand, it was full of wires, then he looked at the bomb and realized he really was still alive. Leonard reached down and pulled more wires and kept pulling until there were no more wires in the bomb. "Okay Base, what next?" 

"Tin Man, nothing else, you neutered it, its is just a bunch of radioactive material and some spare parts. It will take a lot of Government scientists to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again, Tin Man." Howard smiled and turned to Bernadette, who patted him on the back. "Howie you're amazing." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Penny just looked at Howard with doe eyes, her mind was racing, 'Was it actually all over? Was Leonard actually going to live? Would I get him back?' in her mind she expected Howard to answer all those questions, so she just stared at him waiting for him to speak. Howard smiled at Penny and nodded, thinking he saw her relax slightly, however she still looked like she could break at any moment.

"Base is it safe to move?"

"Yes, Tin Man, it is very safe now. What are you going to do?"

Leonard picked the bomb up, put it under his arm and started out the door, "Give it back to the Army where it belongs. Base."

**-Tin Man-**

It had been ten minutes now and nothing had happened. Turner looked at his watch and saw it was past 11 PM and he had to make a decision. He had no proof that anything had changed, the body that fell could be just one of the hostages, and the light, well he had no idea what that was at all. He had to continue the mission, his orders were to make sure it didn't go off, and right now there was nothing telling him the threat was not still there.

"Knight to Hammer 1."

"Hammer 1, go ahead Knight."

Hammer 1, this is Knight, resume mission, code word is 'CHECKMATE', I repeat 'CHECKMATE'."

"Roger Knight, Hammer 1 confirms 'CHECKMATE'." The F-15E swung out again to resume their approach from the east to begin their bomb run.

**-Tin Man-**

Leonard took the elevator to the first floor, stealth didn't seem necessary anymore, and he really didn't care who he ran into. The terrorists in the building lobby just stood there, in lobby, in shock as he came out of the elevator and didn't do anything, except shout in their radios, as Leonard walked out the main door. A hundred eyes watched him as he approached the Army line, spotting Colonel Turner as he scanned the troops, he walked right towards him and 50 yards short, he stopped and laid down the bomb.

It had taken Leonard over 5 minutes to get to this point, he had no idea that in that time the two F-15Es were getting close to their weapon release point.

Turner was amazed at the thing before him, like his troops, but he had also seen the object before the thing had got halfway to him. Though he couldn't believe it was laid before him and now the thing was backing away. "No one fire, pass it down the line." Turner then looked at the two Department of Energy scientists, who were staring at the bomb. "That's it, isn't it." and they both nodded, and started walking towards it while watching the machine back away. Turner now watched as the solid black, machine or creature, disappeared back into the hotel, and then looked at the smiling scientists giving him a thumbs up. "Captain Olson, send the assault squads in", and two squads of heavily armed soldiers entered the hotel. Turner then transmitted orders to Company B and told them to get back immediately.

Leonard entered the lobby but no one was there, not even the terrorists, so he stopped to figure out what to do next.

"System Power at 50 percent" The computer voice reminded him.

'Crap' he thought, but then it dawned on him, he had no escape plan, he never really expected to live, much less escape. "Base, How do I get out of here."

Howard looked at Bernadette and Penny in shock, mouthing 'I don't know' and Penny couldn't stand it anymore, she lunged and grabbed the microphone. "Come back the same way you came, Sweetie."

"Penny!"

Penny covered her mouth and looked at Howard, "Sorry."

Howard grabbed the microphone from her, "Tin Man, backtrack your original route."

"Base, what hell is happening. Is she there with you. Damm it, you wait till I get back." Leonard was pissed.

"Yes she is. It is not my fault and you need to get back, if you think you are going to do anything, Tin Man."

The anger drained from Leonard, "Roger Base, moving now." Leonard headed to the car garage.

The elevator door was just closing as the lead units of the assault squad entered, their point men seeing the thing get in the elevator. They also saw the elevator was going down to the parking garage.

"Sergeant Brown take three men, go down the stairs and follow it, but do not engage." Olson ordered. "The rest of you men, start clearing this hotel and be careful with civilians."

Sergeant Brown and his team, got to the parking garage it time to see the thing walk across the garage and into a storage room towards the end. The rushed up to the room they slowly looked in, only to see a tunnel to the next building's garage. Brown updated Olson, who updated Turner, then his team proceeded to the next garage, once through, they instinctively looked across the garage to the storage room there and saw it was opened too, so they ran flat out to it and saw another tunnel and went through it. They finally saw the thing heading to the elevator in the third garage and notified Olson, who again notified Colonel Turner, who ordered Company B to quickly reposition to cut off the machine, at the third building.

Suddenly the sergeant manning the radio rushed to Turner, "Sir Hammer 1 confirmed release." Turner's eyes went wide.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 - No Escape**

Leonard was starting to feel like he really accomplished something, as he rode the elevator up, he had actually done something right, and he was feeling good about himself, the first time in weeks. Also, he was getting away, he might sleep in his own bed tonight, he even smiled to himself, when he thought what a simple thing like sleeping in ones own bed could mean so much. He was trying to conserve power, in case he needed the power to aid his escape so he slowly walked across the lobby to leave the building. However, as soon as Leonard walked through the front doors, the darkness was taken away from him as the spot lights came on, it seemed like the whole US Army was in front of him. There was nothing he could do, he couldn't walk to their line, because unlike the police, they had heavier weapons and he couldn't do anything to hurt US soldiers just doing their job, Leonard's only hope was to run.

He quickly moved behind a concrete column used to support the overhang of the building, he had to think. He started to look both ways for an escape route and was about to go back into the building when he saw, through the window, the soldiers coming up the stairs, they had been obviously following him. Now that his going back was cut off, the only thing he could do was go forward, his mind immediately going over his new options.

**-Tin Man-**

Colonel Turner knew he had between 30 to 50 seconds before the bombs hit, he grabbed the microphone from the sergeant, "Hammer 1, this is Knight, code word is 'SACRIFICE', I repeat code word is 'SACRIFICE', Hammer 1 abort drop, acknowledge."

"Hammer 1 acknowledges 'SACRIFICE', aborting drop."

"Nothing like cutting it close." The Weapons Officer said to the pilot over the intercom, while he slew the targeting laser to the small park about 300 yards behind the buildings. It was their abort target and the ground was soft there, it would allow the bombs to bury themselves deep before they went off.

Turner radioed his Company commanders, "Take cover, strike abort. All units take cover, acknowledge." and was immediately pleased to get the acknowledgements as he saw his men take cover behind their vehicles. It was actually lucky Leonard did not see the men run behind their vehicles, he might have gotten up and ran, it would have been fatal, he was now planning on escaping through the small park behind the buildings.

It was only 20 seconds later when Turner, and his men then experienced something they had been warned to expect, the two 5000 pound bombs hitting the park, driving themselves over 100 feet into the ground then going off. The ground in the park jumped 6 feet into the air then settled back into the crater caused by the bombs, there was a loud boom and a tremor that felt like a small earthquake. Leonard was the only one that had not expected it and he turned his head quickly towards the sound, hitting the column he was behind and making the special makeshift dark visor, for the dazzlers, drop down, turning everything black for him.

**-Tin Man-**

Penny, Howard and Bernadette heard the boom and felt a little tremor at their location too, then the video monitors went black. Penny stared at the monitors, her breathing became heavy, her worst fears were now staring back at her, the explosion and Leonard's camera going black, she felt like she was dying too. She looked over at Howard and Bernadette, in shock, who didn't know what happened either so just gave her a shocked look in return. Their look was the straw that broke the camel's back, Penny lost it, she could only think of being near him, even if he was dead, and she was out the back door of the van, running to the buildings as fast as her runner's legs could carry her.

Penny was running like a scared animal, pure fear causing copious amount of adrenaline to be pumped into her system. Her mind was screaming to her, that this couldn't be happening, he had been safe, please he can't be dead. She didn't feel anything, her mind's only thought she had to get to Leonard, if she got to Leonard everything would be okay, and that thought alone kept her from falling to the ground and screaming in grief. Penny's sanity, at that moment, was being held together by a thread, she couldn't live without Leonard and she didn't want to, she was going to him, no matter where he was.

**-Tin Man-**

Colonel Turner's driver immediately, after the all clear, drove the command vehicle closer to the third building, Company B had circled, and this gave Turner a clear view of all that was happening. His A Company was busy cleaning up the hotel situation, under Major Houston, so Turner was now positioned in the middle of Company B and from this position, he was now able to observe the whole scene, so he watched as the thing moved. Now that the weapon was secure and the terrorists were being rounded up, the thing had become a higher priority and Turner knew if it kept going the way it was proceeding, it could possibly get away and he couldn't let that happen. Every unit had classified standing orders, since the thing first appeared a few weeks ago, they were suppose to try and catch it, if any of their Army units came upon it. However these orders also said Army units were not suppose to let it get away, his orders were clear, secure it the best way he could, use any means possible to not let it get away. Turner looked at his troops standing there watching it, he had a whole company of armed men, he was now going to have to use them. He quickly looked around for the company commander, "Major Barker, tell your men to ready their weapons and prepare to fire."

Barker looked at Turner in disbelief, but then saluted, "Yes sir." He then went to his officers and sergeants, to relay the orders, and they went to prepare the troops. It took only a few seconds for the HUMVEES with the huge 50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns to lock and load and Barker quickly returned to Turner when they are ready. "Sir, guns are hot, awaiting your orders."

Turner looked at Barker, he really didn't want to do this, he was uncomfortable because he really didn't know if this thing was really an enemy, the way it had acted was more as a friend. It had saved them all, at least it looked that way, unless of course it had been there all along and it was used by the terrorists. There were too many unknowns and Turner had his orders, they would find their answers after they had the thing, "Major Barker, tell your men to stop that thing."

Barker nodded, "Yes Sir." and was gone again, to pass the orders to his officers and sergeants.

**-Tin Man-**

Howard and Bernadette looked at each other, Penny had moved so fast they hadn't had time to react. They both just came out of the van in time to get a glimpse of her as she ran away towards the buildings, but then she was gone. Looking at each other again, they both knew without talking what they needed to do, so they both went after her. None of them saw the monitors go from black to a picture again, when Leonard finally got his special visor back up so he could see and Howard forgot to look at his systems monitoring display, after the screens went black, to see Leonard was still operational.

**-Tin Man-**

After the explosion, Leonard got up and moved, he was now motivated even more to get out of there, so by leapfrogging between the support columns, he was getting close to the end of the building, when Turner's order was finally passed to his men. Leonard stopped when tracers of two 50 caliber machine guns, mounted on two Army HUMVEEs cut off its route and his escape. The machine gun fire was intense, and watching the tracers fly past sent a cold chill through Leonard, making his shiver. Then another thought came to his mind, Penny was seeing this too, she was with Howard and seeing everything he was seeing. He wished he could turn the camera off, but Howard didn't put a switch for that in the suit, so he quickly turned his helmet away from the tracers and tried to calm himself. He just needed to get calm and think, there had to be a way out of this.

**-Tin Man-**

Penny was over half way to the buildings when she hear the noise of the machine guns, it was another piece of information that tried to gain a spot in her already confused mind. It registered, but just barely, she was still being driven by her need to be with Leonard, it had taken her over completely. So the new noise only made her run harder, if that was possible, she just kept running to the light she could now see in the distance.

Howard and Bernadette tried hard to follow, they were both young people but not as toned and physically fit as the young waitress/actress. They ended up running then walking till they could run again, getting closer to the buildings, just like Penny was, but way behind her. They heard the machine gun fire after they were half way there, causing them to look at each other.

"That sounds like…" Bernadette looked at Howard, with questioning eyes.

"Machine guns." Howard finished her sentence.

"Why?" again she questioned.

"Maybe it is against the terrorists." Howard answered, but he couldn't help the feeling that they could also be firing at Leonard, if he was still alive.

Bernadette looked at him and was suddenly aware of his concern, which became her concern. They both then started to run again, this time harder, Howard hoping his heart arrhythmia didn't start acting up on him now.

**-Tin Man-**

Leonard had only a few seconds to think, when the third machine gun started to fire, at him. He was truly screwed and he knew it, his moments ago happiness now changed to dread as he surveyed the situation around him. The new HUMVEE mounted gun had started firing at the column the gunner saw he was behind, Leonard's game of escape had now turned into a game of survival.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18 - Sacrifice

Leonard now watched as the bullets flew around the column he was behind, every time he moved and temporarily exposed himself, tearing huge chunks of the building façade off where they hit. Leonard knew they weren't rifle bullets, they were something bigger and suddenly he realized that the suit he was in might not stop them, he had only tested the material against rifle bullets. The only advantage Leonard had was that the suit could enhance his movements and make him able to move quickly if he tried and so Leonard quickly revised his escape plan. Right now the gunners didn't have a target, if he went the other way he might be able to get to the area between the buildings, and then, if he could get into the open for a few seconds, he could use the thrusters to get away.

Penny reached the scene after the guns starting firing, her mind a mess, just trying to understand what she was seeing and what was happening. She saw the buildings were still standing, but she couldn't understand why the soldiers were firing at one of them, she was in a daze, her mind in overdrive trying to understand and piece together all the information she was being exposed to. The only thing that dominated all this was one thought, 'Where was her Leonard?', so she walked within a few feet of their line, looking for some sign of him.

Leonard needed to act quickly, so he abruptly moved the opposite way he had been going, to the next column, confusing the gunners and making the move before they corrected their heavy machine guns. He didn't stay there long, immediately going for the next, barely making that one too, however when he then tried moving to the third, this time he didn't make it. Two of the 50 caliber guns caught him in a crossfire, the heavy slugs and the pain they caused making him fall to one knee. The 50 caliber machine gun was made to shoot down aircraft, so the pain of huge 50 caliber slugs hitting the suit was like sledge hammers, it was amazing they hadn't penetrated, but when they hit they hurt, hurt bad. Leonard tried moving a little to keep the fire from concentrating fully on him, but he was barely hanging on, the pain from the repeated hits, causing welts wherever they hit. He also had another problem, the suit was taking hits and sustaining damage too, he was getting more and more systems warnings, the suit was shutting down.

It was during the time, when Penny was staring at everything happening, that Howard and Bernadette had finally caught up to her and saw what Penny saw, machine guns firing at the building and like her they didn't know what was happening. Penny had moved to only a few feet behind the soldiers, staring at the building they were firing on and Howard had slowly moved towards her, to grab her and pull her back to where Bernadette was standing. However both of them had became frozen in their spots when they saw Leonard run between the columns, extreme joy and fear for him as they realized he wasn't dead but still in trouble.

Penny had watched as Leonard tried to escape, and silently prayed for his success, time seemed to have gone into slow motion as she watched him go to the next column, even though it was only seconds. She had been paralyzed in fear for him, tears running down her face, she had thought she lost him and seeing him again, she couldn't stand to loose him again. So when he didn't make the third column, fell to one knee, and Penny had to watch the tracers from the machine guns hit Leonard, She became hysterical, moving up to the line, standing between the soldiers and with everything ounce of energy inside her she screamed "Leonard!"

Penny had walked right into the mix of the soldiers, everyone so focused on the thing near the building, they didn't even notice her until several soldiers heard her scream and turned to look at her, wondering where she came from. The small commotion and the sudden decrease in weapons fire, make Turner turn from his nearby command vehicle to see what was happening, surprise crossing his face as he noticed the blonde young woman mixed with his men. She was screaming while they tried to hold her, from it looked like running to the building, and her screams seemed to be only one word, 'Leonard?'. However Turner had a very good memory for people and he recognized her, he had seen her at the party a few weeks ago, she was the girlfriend of Dr Hofstadter who was working on the new bullet proof material project, wasn't his name Leonard, his mind tried to process all that was happening and it came to one quick conclusion. Turner grabbed the command radio microphone, "Cease fire! All units stand down! Secure weapons!" Turner shouted into the radio. Everything immediately got very quiet and Turner looked at Penny, then he yelled down to her, as he pointed to the thing, "Is that Dr Hofstadter?" Penny, taken by surprise, turned her head to look up at Turner and just nodded, tears flowing from her eyes.

The shooting stopped, new pain from the heavy caliber guns hitting the suit had also stopped, Leonard hurt all over, and took a ragged breath. His mind started to work again and as he started to listen to the computer warnings, his heart froze.

**Warning System malfunction, system discharge unit malfunction**

**Seven.…..Abort **

**Warning System malfunction, system discharge unit malfunction**

**Six…Abort**

"Abort, Abort, damm it abort." Leonard yelled.

**Five…Abort **The laser was charging, with no target and he had a warning that the emergency discharge system was damaged, only one thing could happen, it would blow up and he would probably not survive.

"Targeting" He tried, maybe he could fire it harmlessly away at something.

**Targeting system malfunction, laser off-line**

**Four…Abort **Leonard then realized something, he had four full chemical packs left, they would all go off if there was an explosion, it would take out almost a city block. He looked at all the soldiers, they were all in danger and as he quickly scanned their line, he saw the blonde hair and his heart froze again, he saw Penny. His mind screamed, 'NO… NOT, PENNY!'

**Three…Abort **He had to something, he had to save Penny, he couldn't let the packs explode and hurt or kill her, he had to protect her, it was the only thing going through his mind. He looked around desperately and saw it, a fountain and pool, in front of the buildings, it was his only chance. He had only two seconds and he thought, pleaded, 'Please Work'

**Two….Abort**

"Thruster"

**Thruster Armed…..Abort**

**One…Abort**

Leonard made one last effort, got the suit standing up and turned to the pool, taking a difficult couple steps, as quickly as he could, from under the overhang, then hit the fire button, in his glove.

**Ready**

Leonard now had two seconds before the system aborted and discharged and blew up, as they thrusters carried him to the pool. The soldiers watched in awe as the thing lifted off then, then just as suddenly, landed in the pool. Leonard hit the water, immediately falling on his back and quickly sank, watching as the water covered his visor as he sank, hoping beyond hope he was right.

**Laser abort. System discharge**

What happened next, was the event that Leonard hoped would happen, the system discharged to a power bus that was now in water, the electrical discharge dumping completely and safely into the water, turning suddenly on and then shorting out every spotlight in the pool, sparks flying like a fourth of July fireworks display. The new steel frame work of the suit's exoskeleton was the only thing that saved Leonard from be electrocuted, however the suit was not waterproof and it was now flooding and Leonard had no power to move it, the electrical discharge had killed the suit too. The water was rising fast, filling the suit, Leonard could feel it coming up rapidly to his helmet, and there was nothing he could do. In the seconds he had left, as he felt the water fill the suit, he thought it had been worth it, he really had no regrets, Penny was safe and in a way it was almost funny, after all he just been through, he was going to drown in about 4 feet of water.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19 - Life or Death**

Howard and Bernadette had watched, just like Penny, when Leonard had landed in the water, the electrical discharge and display surprising them as much as Penny. The soldiers had also been awestruck by the display, temporarily forgetting about Penny and even had let her go, so when they heard Penny scream 'Leonard' again, they were so surprised, they didn't react and just watched her run to the pool. The sparks had not even finished before Penny bolted, she had to get to him, it was the only thing on her mind and she wasn't going to stop till she had him again. Howard's reeling mind told him to just follow her, so he did, which then spurred several soldiers to also follow the blonde girl, not because they wanted to recapture her, but because they were men and couldn't let the pretty girl go into danger alone. However they slowed down when they all started to reach the pool, they didn't know if it was safe, all except Penny, she never stopped and Howard immediately followed her.

The water was up to Leonard's chin, his nose and mouth would be covered in a couple seconds. He wondered if it would hurt a lot to die and he thought what should be his last words on this earth. He smiled, "I love you Penny." he got out before the water covered his mouth and nose, as it filled the helmet. Leonard held his breath, he was trying so hard not to panic, with the suit being dead and weighing over a quarter ton, it was like being in a straight jacket, he could barely move, and soon the horrible feeling of not having air to breath was taking over his last few seconds of life.

Penny didn't understand much about electricity and water, but she also didn't care, all she could think of was Leonard, she jumped in the water and waded to him, she didn't even hear Howard's splash as he entered the water behind her, by a few seconds. By the time Penny and Howard reached the suit, Leonard had become unconscious, he now only had about 5 minutes before he was completely gone. Penny started to yank on the suit, to try and get it above the water, but it was too heavy, and Penny screamed at Howard to pull harder, as he tried to help her. Within 15 seconds, after their arrival, a couple more sets of hands started to help them, but still the water logged suit was too heavy, they couldn't get it out of the water and Penny was getting more hysterical by the second, screaming at them all to all try harder.

Bernadette had arrived at the pool side, at about the same time as the soldiers started to try and help, now seeing the people hopelessly struggle to get the suit with Leonard out of the water. Just by watching them straining to lift Leonard, she saw it was too heavy for them, she knew they would never get it out. However, Bernadette was a small woman with glasses, she had experienced situations before in her life were her size and strength could not get something done. Like those times before in her life, when she didn't have size or strength to do something, she now looked for an advantage to make up for every ones lack of strength, to move the suit. She was also a very smart person, so as she quickly looked around, she spotted something, one of the military HUMVEEs had moved close to the pool, and it had a winch built into the front bumper. She walked quickly to the vehicle and yanked at the cable hook, yelling to a nearby soldier to help her to pull the winch hook from his holder. The soldier quickly grabbed it with her, then yelled at the soldier inside the vehicle, to release the winch brake. Bernadette loudly told them what she wanted to do in about 5 seconds, Bernadette's voice from such a small person shocking them both, but they immediately did what she told them, one grabbing the hook and cable, the driver releasing the wince brake. Bernadette made her way as fast as she could, the soldier following with the hook and cable, to the pool, and the HUMVEE driver slowly followed, moving his vehicle a little closer to the pool. Bernadette took the hook and the soldier jumped into the pool, immediately taking it back from her, he then waded out to Leonard giving the hook to Howard. It took Howard only a couple of seconds to look at the hook and back to Bernadette to understand her idea, he quickly attached the winch hook in the lifting clevis at the base of the helmet. Howard then gave Bernadette the thumbs up and she then yelled to the HUMVEE driver to start winching and to everyone's relief the machine came up, from the bottom of the pool, then was pulled to the wall of the pool. The suit was pulled tight against the pool wall, the helmet and shoulders completely out of the water, and Howard immediately unfastened the locks, at the back of the helmet, to expose Leonard's head.

Leonard had been unconscious for between 2-3 minutes, so the sight Penny and everyone saw, almost made her scream, his eyes were closed, his lips blue, and he was not breathing. Instinct took over Penny, the Cheesecake Factory had made every waitresses learn mouth to mouth resuscitation, and it all came back to Penny in that instant. Penny clamped her mouth to his and did everything they taught her, making sure she made his chest rise and fall with each puff of air she gave him. She kept at it for almost a minute, before Leonard started coughing and threw up water, it was the most wonderful thing she ever saw and the tears started to flow from her eyes. She had been so scared, her breathing was as ragged as Leonard's, so she just held his head, staring at his face, as both their breathing settled down, and his eyes started to flutter open. A feeling of pure joy washed over her as she saw his big brown eyes open and she gently caressed his head in her hands, almost crying now, "I love you Leonard, don't worry honey, I'll take care of you now."

Howard, Bernadette and the soldiers just looked at each other, then at Penny holding Leonard, no one knew exactly what to do. Finally Howard saw Colonel Turner coming over. "Penny, we really need to get Leonard out of this suit, now." which finally make her release him. It took almost 15 minutes to get him out and then a very banged up and weak Leonard was put on a stretcher, Penny never leaving his side.

**-Tin Man-**

Turner had Leonard immediately put in the back of an Army truck, allowing Penny, Bernadette and Howard to go with him, not only because they were friends but also to keep them all in a group and under guard. The truck then proceed to Los Angeles Air Force Station, the closest medical facility, under the guard of two very mean looking soldiers from Captain Olson's assault squad and a medic. Leonard was weak and there was a real concern of him having a life threatening condition, from the ordeal, so they wanted to get him medical attention quickly to make sure there were no complications. The medic was there to monitor Leonard, to make him comfortable, and to made sure he didn't relapse on the way to the medical faculty, while all the time working around Penny, who sat next to Leonard holding his hand. Penny was an emotional mess, she was still terrified for him, praying to herself he would be okay and holding his hand was the only thing keeping her together.

At the medical facility Howard and Bernadette were brought to and kept in a waiting room, separated from Leonard, and Penny, who would not leave his side. They were given hot drinks and snacks to eat and dry hospital scrubs to change into, even though Bernadette was not very wet, it was obvious their street clothes were being taken from them, they were prisoners. Inside the exam room, no one tried anymore to make Penny leave Leonard, she had his hand the whole time, even when doctor gave him a quick physical, still glaring at he doctor and nurse from when they first said something about her waiting outside. She wouldn't even leave him to change, only taking a blanket from the nurse to try to warm herself while she stayed with him, still soaked. Quickly, however, the doctor couldn't stand the sight of the shivering young blond woman, so they left them both alone so she would change without having to leave Leonard, the doctor not wanting to have a pneumonia case on his hands.

Part of the problem, Turner faced, was the military didn't really have the facilities, at the Air Force Station, to handle Leonard and the group, they wanted them to remain in custody of the military, but they didn't want to lock them up. The other big problem was they didn't want anyone to know about them, who didn't need to know, the Army National Guard unit was already being briefed on the new classification of the whole event. Turner and his Air Force counter-part, on the Air Force Station, had already been in contact with their superiors, this quickly becoming both a Chief of Staff of the Army and Air Force issue, therefore, they decided to keep the group in the medical facility over night under armed guard. Howard and Bernadette got to visit with Leonard for a couple minutes, to ease their minds he was going to be okay, then were moved to a empty medical facility room, to spend the night, two Air Force security personal standing outside the room all night.

Howard and Bernadette, in their hospital scrubs, resigned themselves to their captivity and, now in the room, they ate the food that was brought to them. The room had two hospital beds, a TV and a bathroom, so the both of them made the best of it, knowing they were going to be there the whole night, and got comfortable. They hadn't talked much about anything, except Leonard since they got there, so now Bernadette brought up the whole thing with Howard.

"Howie, I wouldn't believe what has happened over the last half day, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, and even then it is hard to believe. How long have you and Leonard been building that?"

"A couple of months, once Leonard figured out how to make sheets of the fabric, it really came together pretty fast."

"You built that from scratch in a couple months!"

"Well not from scratch. I had a robot project, from a few years ago, so I used all the parts and equipment from that to put the mobile exoskeleton together, that sped things up a lot."

"Still that is amazing. I want to yell at you for all this, but to be honest, I am so in awe of you right now, I guess I can forgive you."

Howard smiled, "Thanks Honey. I hope you still feel that way when you are visiting me in jail."

Bernadette looked at him stunned, her Howie going to jail had never crossed her mind. "What do you mean? Why would you go to jail?" Bernadette couldn't help the tears from forming in her eyes. "Howard, why are you saying you are going to jail?"

Howard now looked down, ashamed to look at his wife's eyes, Leonard had told him this would happen if he stayed close to him. "I built most of the suit, Leonard killed a man at the Cheesecake Factory, disrupted a police situation and now we disrupted an Army operation, they are not going to treat us kindly after all that." Howard then looked at his wife, and with a heavy heart, watched his words sink in and her expression change. Bernadette broke down, she buried her head into Howard's chest and sobbed.

They finally got Leonard to rest in another hospital room that night, it was the same as the one Howard and Bernadette where in, two beds, a bathroom and two armed guards outside. Penny was also dressed in hospital scrubs, but Leonard was in a hospital gown, him still being a patient. They were brought food too, however neither were very hungry, eating only a little, Leonard being exhausted and banged up, Penny from her stomach still being in knots from her concern for Leonard. Penny spent her whole time on the edge of his bed holding his hand and talking quietly to him the whole time he was awake. She told him, she loved him, would take care of him and would never leave him, and he quickly fell asleep listening to her soothing voice.

Penny had eventually ended up curled up next to him, stoking his hair, and gently talking to him, when he finally fell asleep. Her senses were now so attuned to his breathing, watching his chest going up and down, it had a calming effect on her, her worry for him something she never had for another human being. Her head was laying on he same pillow and his and their faces were barely touching, her body was touching his and her hand was on his chest, she could barely feel his heart beating with her finger tips. He was the most precious person she had ever been with or had the honor of calling hers, and suddenly all her commitment issues seemed stupid and childish. She didn't ever want to loose him, she knew now that thinking, if things didn't work out with him they could remain just being friends, was stupid, if another girl like Priya came along and took him, she wouldn't be able to handle it. The feelings she had for him were not just love, they were LOVE, they were real, now she knew why she never felt like this with anyone else, she never fell in LOVE with anyone else.

**-Tin Man-**

Colonel Turner and the Air Force Colonel Fry, sat at an all night restaurant, eating a little something before they returned to the Air Force Station, they would both be spending the night there. The orders from Pentagon were very clear, 'Put a tight lid on this.', they were told, it was now Top Secret, and the Air Force was going to help Turner in any way possible. Turner had a lot to do tomorrow, some of his other orders were quite detailed and surprising, but he actually agreed with them, it was the only way, and as he sat with Colonel Fry, he went over all his requirements for the nest day.

**-Tin Man-**

Penny curled up a little tighter against a sleeping Leonard, in the bed, gently holding him, his heart beat soothing her, and she slowly fell asleep, never leaving him the whole night. That was the way the nurse found them when she checked Leonard's vitals, and after briefing the doctor, an Air Force Colonel, he reluctantly authorized it, admitting that Penny was probably the best medicine for Leonard at that time.

Bernadette had finally fallen asleep too, her crying finally becoming whimpers and then sleep finally took her. Howard knew she was asleep when her death grip around him had finally slacked, it had broken his heart to make her feel like that, he had tried to find a way he could have made it not happen, but he knew there was none. He gently stroked his sleeping wife's hair, he would never love anyone as much as he loved her, in a strange way they were just as much soul mates as they knew Leonard and Penny were. No there was nothing Howard could have done, he knew what Leonard and him had done was the right thing, Leonard couldn't have done any of that alone, and he could have never abandon Leonard. It made him feel a little better, except for the part that he may be taken from Bernadette, and as he looked down at her, he kissed her head, holding her a little tighter as sleep finally took him too.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter - 20 Consequences?**

The four of them had been dead tired when they went to sleep, Penny, Howard and Bernadette, having gone through an emotional rollercoaster, the day before, then the physical exertion of saving their friend. Leonard was both physically hurt, then had been drown and revived, his body just needed rest, to get back to normal. It was no surprise that Leonard feel asleep and stayed asleep all night his body trying to recover from the abuse that should have killed him. Penny, Howard and Bernadette should have been out all night too, but each of them spent the night in varying states of fitful sleep.

Bernadette slept for a few hours, then suddenly woke up, a dream scaring her awake, of her being alone and not being able to find Howard. She almost woke up screaming, but no sooner that she regained a little consciousness, she felt Howard's arms around her and immediately knew it was a bad dream. However, as Bernadette now lay awake in his arms, she remembered all he had told her before she fell asleep, and the recurring thought of being without him, made her heart feel cold. The next two hours, she didn't know if she napped or not, as she tried to reason a way for Howard not to be taken from her and realizing she had absolutely no control over what was going to happen to her.

Howard had woke up almost an hour after Bernadette, and with her laying on his chest he only saw the top of her head, not that her eyes were open most of the time while she thought. He tried not to move, so he would not disturb his sleeping wife, he felt she needed her sleep, never knowing she lay awake. As he laid there he thought about her and how he would plead to whatever authorities were punishing them, that his wife was not involved, the thought of her being locked up the most horrible thing he could think of right now. He was still trying to figure what he could do, when he felt Bernadette squeeze him harder, like she had done while she was awake earlier.

"Bernadette you should be asleep."

"Howie, I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, I was awake for a little while."

"You too. I have been here thinking about everything."

"Honey, I'll protect you I promise, I'll make sure they know you weren't involved, only me."

The fear of him being locked up took over her mind again, and she looked up at him, pulling herself up to him to kiss him. "Howie, I love you." it was all she could say, she didn't know what was going to happen when the sun came up and she just wanted her husband. Bernadette moved herself until she was on her husband then pulled her shirt off, then his, so when they kissed again their bare chests were pressed against each other. It wasn't long before their bare bodies were locked in an embrace as their passion drove anything else from their minds.

**-TIN MAN-**

Penny slept deeply for a couple hours, then came wide awake, to the noise, when the nurse did her check of Leonard's vitals. Leonard had a heart, oxygen intake and blood pressure monitor system on him to make sure he had no problems that night and a nurse checked on him every one to two hours on top of that. Leonard was asleep on his back and all his monitor leads exited from the right side of his body, while Penny laid curled up against him on his left side.

Penny now laid there thinking, she was worried about Leonard again, when she first came to the hospital, with him, she was totally concerned with him only, but now she had time to think about the other things that had happened since they got there. There were guards outside, this room they were in, and their clothes were taken away, the military had been controlling them since they got there and Penny was convinced they were prisoners. She also could tell, by the way they were acting around him, that the military was very interested in Leonard and with all that interest, plus being prisoners, Penny was concerned about what they had in mind for him.

So Penny just laid there, the rest of the night, napping for short periods and then waking to think, or to watch the nurse when she came it to check on Leonard. She wanted to talk to him so badly, but she wanted him to rest and sleep more, he was so banged up, it was all she could do, not to cry. She settled for just being close to him, gently touching him and looking at him as he slept, she knew she would never look at him the same again. No man, no matter how big or how muscular would ever measure up to Leonard, in her mind again, he was her hero, her Prince Charming, and her white knight. However, as she laid there, she also remembered, in great detail, how it felt, last night, to think she had lost him and how close she came to that being true, it made her shiver, especially when she realized his future and hers was still uncertain.

**-TIN MAN-**

The next morning was busy for Turner, the Pentagon made him senior leader for the situation and hearing his initial briefing the night before, they classified everything about the suit and Leonard, Top Secret Special Access Required. This security clearance meant that you not had to only had to have a Top Secret clearance, but you had to be vetted to verify you had a specific reason to know about the situation. There had been two military video cameras at the original operation with the terrorists and bomb, feeding video to headquarters, so there was plenty of footage of Dr Hofstadter and the suit. Needless to say, when that video had been sent to the Pentagon, the suit had caused quite a stir, especially after seeing it hit with numerous 50 caliber anti-aircraft machine gun rounds and the wearer surviving. Turner spent three hours, briefing, answering questions and receiving orders, that morning, so when the video conference was done, he knew exactly what he had to do.

Turner didn't get to start this work till 11 AM that morning, when he went to the room being occupied by Howard and Bernadette. He went there first, because the doctors told him Dr Hofstadter needed at least 12 hours of rest before they would release him, so Turner would not be able to talk to him till the afternoon. Turner found Mr. and Mrs. Wolowitz sitting in the room, quietly talking to each other, wrapped tightly in each others arms, and they looked at him with scared eyes when he told them what they were going to do that afternoon. Turner took Howard away with him, after he and his wife held each other and kissed, then quietly stared at each other as they started to separate. Bernadette was taken by a female officer, with her own set of questions, Turner now knowing they were man and wife, so he promised them they would be reunited quickly as long as they both answered their questions truthfully, he also told them that, because he felt it was the only way he could separate them without an incident.

**-TIN MAN-**

Leonard woke up, about 2 PM, with Penny's blonde hair on his shoulder, while she napped cuddled up to him, her head next to his on the pillow. He was feeling better physically, than last night, but psychologically he was worried, Penny was now involved and thinking about the impact to her future, from all this, scared him. There was nothing he could do, he knew the Army had him and would probably give him to the police, he had accepted, in his mind, that he would go to jail, for a very long time, but now he was worried about Penny, he couldn't live with himself if they locked her up. He also realized that he had so little time left with her, and he couldn't help but touch her hair and kiss the side of her head, he just wanted to cherish his remaining time with her.

Leonard's touch woke Penny up, she had slept lightly all morning, waiting for him to awake, she wanted so much to talk to him. So as soon as she woke she turned her head so she could look at him and when she looked into his beautiful eyes, she though her heart would burst from her chest. "Morning Sweetie, are you feeling okay, do you need anything?"

"No, I'm feeling somewhat better, but Penny…." Penny put her finger to his lips to stop him from talking, since he was okay she wanted to tell him something.

"Honey, since you are okay, I need to say something first to you." Leonard just nodded and waited for her to speak.

"Leonard, I love you. I have loved you for a while, I don't know why I couldn't say it, maybe because, with you, I knew it was real, and it scared me. I don't know, but Honey know that I love you and it is real." Leonard looked into her eyes and saw she was being serious with him, he gave her a small smile.

"Leonard there is something else. A while ago you asked me to marry you during sex and I told you the next day, 'No'. I want to change that answer, if your offer is still out there, to 'Yes'." Leonard just looked at her in shock.

"Sweetie, I realized something the last couple of weeks, that I need you in my life and I am not happy without you. The last 24-hours taught me that loosing you is the most horrible thing that could ever happen to me, and I'm not going to let that happen. I want to be your wife and I want to be with you forever and I'm not scared about forever with you anymore, I look forward to it."

'Why is this happening now.' Leonard thought. He looked at her, she needed to know the truth, they couldn't be together, not anymore. "Penny, I really don't think that can happen, they are going to lock me up, I killed a man, you were there, they are not going to let me go for that."

Penny's eyes were tearing up, thinking of Leonard in prison, broke her heart. "No, no, no, no." She shook her head and trembled as she said that, "They can't do that, you saved me and all those people…..Sweetie they can't do that."

Leonard was trying to think of something to say, when Colonel Turner walked into his room. "Dr Hofstadter….Miss…are you feeling better Dr Hofstadter?"

'This is it.' Leonard thought, they would be taking him away. He looked at Penny's eyes then turned his head away to look at Turner. "Yes, I think I am back to normal, except for being stiff and sore from the bruises."

It took Penny a couple of seconds to process what was happening, the look Leonard gave her was like telling her good bye and his response to the Army officer, sounded like he was surrendering, she gasped when it hit her and she wrapped her arms around him. She was actually squeezing him, holding on for dear life, she knew if she let him go she would loose him, "No, Leonard." was all she could say, she didn't want him to leave her.

Turner, again, for the second time that day, felt uncomfortable, from Penny's reaction, the two of them were very involved, much more that many husbands and wives he had seen, but they had to get this done. "Dr Hofstadter, we need to talk to you in a secure area. I'm sorry but it must be alone. Penny there is a female officer outside who needs to debrief you too. I can wait a few minutes outside for you two to get ready, but please don't take long." Turner then turned and left the room.

Penny lifted her head and looked at Leonard. "No Leonard, No." she kept saying while she shook her head at him. She was going loose him and it was killing her, it was almost as bad as last night, why was she being punished.

Leonard gently moved her and now held her at arms length, "There is nothing we can do, Penny. I'm sorry, I've tried to think of something, but I can't. I killed a man and I have to pay."

"But you saved me! That has to count for something, doesn't it!" Penny was desperate to cling to anything that would keep him from leaving her.

"If I was a police officer or a soldier, doing his job, you would be right, but I was a…I was nobody, just some clown in a suit." he then looked into her eyes, "But it was worth it, Penny, believe me I have no regrets. You are safe, and I would do it a hundred times again to keep you safe." While Leonard was talking he had stiffly moved, off the bed, to the table and started changing from the hospital gown to the clean hospital scrubs, on the table, they had left for him. Penny had slept in hers, and now they just looked like prison outfits to her, watching him change into his was just making her feel worse.

Penny was about to say something else, when the doctor came in. "Dr Hofstadter, how are you feeling?"

"A little better, except for where the bullets hit me, those places are black and blue, and sore."

"Okay, just let me check a couple things." Leonard sat back down on the bed, while the doctor did a quick 5-minute check on him. Penny just stood there staring at him, while he just looked back at her.

"You have some tissue bruises, but otherwise you are not seriously hurt. You are going to be sore for probably a week and the marks will probably take 2-3 weeks to go away. Your oxygen intake has been good all night and your heart is strong, so I have to release you…..you are going to be fine…..you are very lucky." The doctor gave him a small smile and nod. "Now all I need is for you to sign this release form and then I'll turn you over to Colonel Turner." Leonard nodded and signed the paper on the clipboard the doctor had, while Penny looked on in horror.

She was having problems with what was happening around her, Leonard was probably going to prison for saving her and he was acting like it was a done deal, he was accepting it at all. He also told her he would have done it again, to save her, because her safety was worth more than the consequences to himself. As she looked at him, she saw the most selfless man in the world, her knight in shiny armor, and a real man, the first one she truly ever met, he was everything she ever wanted and she was loosing him. No sooner then the doctor left, Penny grabbed him and gave him the most passionate kiss she had ever had given anyone, she held him tight, never wanting to let him go.

Colonel Turner and a female officer, Major Gray then came in, to see Penny and Leonard locked in an embrace their mouths crushed together. Turner cleared his throat to get their attention. "Are you ready Dr Hofstadter?" Leonard slowly pulled himself away from Penny and looked at Turner, slowly nodding. Leonard then turned and smiled at Penny and was about to say something, when she pulled herself to him again, wrapping her arms around his neck, in a death grip, her head on his shoulder. Penny began to whimper, while she held him, everything was falling apart for her and she didn't know what to do.

Turner looked at Gray, who had a helpless look on her face, they really didn't know what to do at that moment. Leonard solved it for them, he turned slightly, with Penny wrapped around him, so he looked at Turner, "Colonel Turner, could Penny and I see each other later today?" Turner could see the pleading look in Leonard's eyes, Leonard just wanted him to say, 'Yes', even if it wasn't true.

It was just like Wolowitz and his wife, "Yes Dr Hofstadter, you two can see each other later today."

Leonard felt Penny relax a little, so he reluctantly pushed her off him and she reluctantly let him. He looked directly into her eyes and softly said just to her, "Honey, it will be okay, I will see you later." Penny just nodded, her eyes were wet from tears.

But before they separated, Penny looked back, deep into his eyes. "Leonard Hofstadter, I love you and you are my hero. I will wait for you forever, no matter what."

Leonard sadly nodded, then turned to leave the room with Turner and Penny left with Gray, walking in opposite directions, while looking back at each other. Penny only mindlessly moving because she was going to see him again, in a little while, and Leonard trying to remember her as she looked, thinking it would probably be a very long time before he saw her again, if ever. Leonard and Turner turned a corner in the hall and Leonard's view of Penny was gone, so he looked up at Turner. "Thank you, Colonel." Turner looked at Leonard and nodded, not really understanding what Leonard meant by that statement and why he was thanking him.


End file.
